Two Worlds Collide
by Strawberry Raindrops
Summary: AU. NaruSaku. "You had your dreams, I had mine. You had your fears, I was fine. It showed me what I couldn't find.. when two different worlds collide."
1. Never Associate with a Boy Like that

Disclaimer: I don't own _Naruto, _blahblahblah, and all that crap.

**IMPORTANT NOTE, PLEASE READ, DUH!!: Characters will seem kind of out of character. Please just bear with it. It's for the story to flow. Please, don't complain/whine/throw a tantrum/throw rotten tomatoes or cows at me just because of it. If you don't like the fact that they're not acting completely 100% as themselves, then don't read! Oh and this is taking place at normal era/world, whatever. It's taking place in Konoha High and, Sakura is a new student.**

**---**

**Chapter One**

**Sakura.**

_I'll **never **get associated with a boy like that. _

The first time I saw him was when he ran down the hallways, paint buckets in hands, laughing his head off. He had unruly blond hair, and the widest grin I've ever seen. Splatters of paints flew everywhere as people ducked to avoid being splattered and moved out of the boys way as he weaved through the people. Behind him where several guards shouting, and chasing after him. The boy glanced over his shoulder and stuck his tongue out at them.

"_Come on, slow pokes!_" He cried, grinning. "You're so slow this is almost boring, bastards!"

That definitely got the guards working. They ran even faster and cursed and swore at the boy.

The boy was definitely enjoying this as he shouted, "That's more like it!"

He reached the end of the hallway, paused for half a second and threw the paint buckets behind him as he slammed himself against the door and flew out.

The paint buckets soared through the air and and a few landed splat on the guards' heads, as others clattered to the floor, making pools of paints causing the guards to slip and fall.

I watched with horror as I blinked rapidly, trying to recall what the hell just happened.

I glanced at the groaning guards and back at the door where the boy flew out.

I told myself I would never ever associate with him, or any person like that.

But I couldn't help but wonder...

_who **was **that boy? _

–

**Naruto.**

"You should have been there! It was _hilarious_!" I chuckled as I swallowed a huge mouthful of coke. The coke's coldness soared through my body and it felt like heaven especially after a day's work of prank done.

"_Lame,_" My best friend, Sasuke, said bluntly, not taking his eyes off the stupid book he was reading.

I scowled at him.

_Sasuke, _always thinking he was _so _much better than me just because he was _supposedly _good looking, smart, strong, _cool. _

I wrinkled my nose. I didn't see what was so _cool _about him except that he often acted like a emo bastard to me.

Maybe girls liked emo bastards.

"If you think that was so _lame, _how come I never see _you _pulling any dirty pranks, huh?" I challenged.

He flipped a page of his book.

"I don't waste my time doing stupid stuff like that, dobe," He replied.

"Yeah, of course you don't. You'd rather spend your time reading stupid shit," I scoffed.

For the first time, Sasuke's eyes left the pages of his book and he sent a death glare at me.

I shut up and pretended not to notice his glare as I took another sip of my coke.

There was a moment of silence, but it was alright. Silences between us were always comfortable and nice.

I closed my eyes and lied down as I felt the light breeze.

This felt good, this felt good.

Just sitting on the school rooftop with your best friend, drinking coke, feeling the breeze.

What else could be more relaxing than that?

I was enjoying the relaxation when I suddenly heard footsteps from the staircase leading to the school rooftop.

My eyes instantly fluttered open as I sat up and turned to see who was intruding our "not-so-secret-hideout."

Not many people came to the school rooftop.

Sasuke closed his book and turned around too.

The door that led to the rooftop opened as a figure slightly stepped out.

A girl.

Around my age.

_With. . .**pink** hair?! _

–

**Sakura.**

My eyes widened as I recognized the crazy blond boy that ran through the hallways. Next to him, was a boy I didn't recognize.

_A **damn **fine looking boy, that is! _

"Um. . ." I said, blinking rapidly.

"Oi, this is our territory," The blond boy said, spitting on the ground.

A slight irritation rose up in me.

"_Excuse _me?" I scoffed. "This is the school rooftop. It's open for anyone on campus."

Here I was, talking with him when just an hour ago I had swore to myself that I'd never associate with him. Not with a boy like him, that is.

But. . .well, a small talk wouldn't hurt, would it?

"Well, right now it's not. Right now, it's being occupied by me and that emo bastard over there," The blond boy replied, indicating the guy next to him.

"Shut it, dobe," The other boy said coolly. He turned to me. "Sorry, that's Naruto. He doesn't know how to greet people like human beings."

The blond boy, Naruto, punched the one who just spoke on the arm as he mumbled, "shut up."

I tried to fight a smile.

There was a moment of silence.

"What are you doing up here anyways?" Naruto asked bitterly.

"I like relaxing on school rooftops," I replied, ignoring his rudeness.

"Well, you can come some other time when the roof top's _not _being occupied."

"There's plenty of room, idiot."

There was another moment of silence as Naruto and I glared at each other.

_God, he's starting to get on my nerves, _I thought, irritated.

"Ignore him," The boy next to Naruto said suddenly. His back was towards me, and he was reading a book. "He's always this rude, sometimes worse. This is his way of being polite, in fact."

"_Bastard_!" Naruto snapped.

"Dobe," The boy simply replied.

As they continued to dis each other, I walked across the rooftop, and sat as far away from them as I could.

I leaned over the rail of the rooftop and gazed at the view. It wasn't amazing, but it was a pretty view.

After a while, their bickering stopped.

"Oi, pinky!"

I turned slowly, annoyed by my new nickname.

"What's your name?"

I grinned, glad that he asked.

"Sakura. Sakura Haruno."


	2. Ying and Yang

**Chapter Two**

**Naruto.**

She had said it with such confidence, it surprised me. Usually girls avoided me, rather hated me. And when I told them to get lost, they'd gladly do so.

But her, there was something different about her.

The way she smiled confidently, the way she argued back when I told her to get off "our" territory.

I shook my head.

No, there was nothing different about her. She was just new and didn't know me well enough. Once she did, she'd soon start to avoid me, just like everyone else.

"Tch, Sakura? Did your parents name you that to match your hair color? Too bad they didn't name you Pink." It was lame, light teasing, but I didn't care. She was a girl after all and she seemed the sensitive type.

Besides, I could tell that the girl, Sakura, was pissed already from the way she was scowling darkly at me.

I turned away from her, hiding my grin. It was childish to enjoy a girl being mad at you, but I couldn't help love the way she got annoyed with me even though I've only talked to her – _known _her – for a few minutes now.

"Um, what's your name?" I heard Sakura's voice from behind.

"Naruto," I replied.

"Not you! I meant. . .I meant the guy next to you."

I paused then eyed her from the corner of my eye.

She was gazing at Sasuke.

I turned my back to her again and closed my eyes.

Of course it was Sasuke.

It was _always _Sasuke.

_And anyways_, I thought, _I was stupid to think she was 'different.' She's the same just like the rest of them, swooning over "cool, handome Sasuke-kun." _

"Sasuke," Sasuke replied politely, not taking his eyes off the book.

"Ah, okay."

Comfortable silence settled upon us as I finished up my coke.

_Maybe. . .just **maybe **this girl wasn't so bad after all, _I thought as I eyed her out of the corner of my eye.

She was gazing at the sunset, her long pink (I was still trying to ponder if that was her natural hair color or not since it looked so damn real) hair dancing a little in the air.

She was the first girl whom I've met to have liked sunsets, who liked going on rooftops.

Then again, I never really associated with any girl before.

Sasuke finally closed his book and was staring at the sunset too.

The sunset really was breathtaking. The orange, blue, and purple were all splashed against the sky, right above the horizon. The sun was barely up now. Only a few rays were holding onto the sky, but not for long. Soon the moon would take over and shine.

I closed my eyes. Yes, this is how I just wanted it to be.

The rooftop was my only escape from reality.

Sitting here, I could escape all the shit from Earth. By sitting here, I could almost feel like I was high above enough to be in Heaven.

But reality soon crawled over me as the last few rays of the sun was washed away by darkness and the air chilled.

It was time to head on back down.

Back to Earth.

Back to reality.

Back to dealing with crap.

I sighed.

_Why couldn't days just last forever?_

Sasuke stood up and headed towards the door.

"Sasuke-teme, wait up," I grumbled as I got to my feet and caught up with him. "Hey, I'm hungry. . .your treat?" I asked, sheepishly.

He rolled his eyes which meant "yes" in his language.

We both turned to leave.

"Wait!"

We turned around. (I turned around a little hesitantly.)

"Can I come with?" The girl asked, her emerald eyes gleaming with hope.

She asked with absolute no hesitation or shame.

–

**Sakura.**

The boys were. . .well, complete opposites, I observed.

Sasuke was cool, handsome, quiet.

Naruto was _not_ cool, _not_ handsome, loud, stubborn, idiotic. . .

_Yeah, Naruto's all the bad things_, I thought as I folded my arms with a smirk.

Sasuke, on the other hand was. . .

_all the good things._

Sasuke actually reminded me a little of. . .

_No, no,_ I thought, quickly shaking the thought away. _I can't think of him. . .not now. . .not now. I barely even came here, and I'm already missing him. . .how pathetic is that?_

"Oi."

I quickly snapped my head up as I saw Naruto tapping his chopsticks together in front of my eyes, trying to get my attention.

I scowled at him.

"What?" I growled.

"You were daydreaming, so I thought I'd be generous enough to remind you that our food came before Sasuke and I devoured the whole thing."

I shrugged and picked up my chopsticks.

Even though I've only known these boys for a few, what, hours, maybe? I felt like I've known them since eternity.

There was nothing I knew about these boys, but there was a lot that I grasped from them in just a few hours, too.

As often as the two boys bickered and cursed at each other, they were relatively very close, and were on the lookout for each other. They almost seemed like ying and yang, two complete opposites, yet they were filling each other's needs.

It was almost. . ._cute. _

I blushed and quickly drank my whole glass of water.

Naruto and Sasuke stared at me weirdly as I choked from drinking my water too fast, and cleared my throat.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked, his eyebrow raising.

"Oh, yeah, of course! I'm perfectly fine. Just-just choked on some water, is all," I said way too quickly, feeling slightly flustered.

I ordered myself to shut up as I stared down at my lap and stuffed rice into my mouth.

"Tch, what a weird girl," I heard Naruto mumble.

"Shut it, idiot," I snapped.

We sat there, glaring at each other until Sasuke finally broke our concentration by reaching across the table and taking the last teriyaki chicken as he popped it in his mouth and chewed.

By then, Naruto and I were staring stupidly at him.

Sasuke stopped chewing as his eyes averted from Naruto to me, and back at Naruto again, obviously feeling slightly self concious.

"What?" He growled as he swallowed.

I fought back a smile.

–

"Thanks for treating me," I said, smiling.

"It's not like he had a choice. You practically clung onto him when I told you, no," Naruto growled.

I glared at him. "He said yes the first time, idiot! Besides, I wasn't asking _or _thanking you."

"Do you guys _ever _stop fighting?" Sasuke muttered.

We shut up for a while.

I stared out the window, at the sky.

The moon was out and only a few stars shined brightly. The last time I've seen a lot of stars was a few years ago in Indonesia.

I closed my eyes.

_God . .I missed those stars . ._

But what I really meant by that was, I missed Indonesia.

But what I _really truly _meant by that was, I missed _him. _

The bus finally halted to a stop, and it was my stop. I waved a final wave at the boys – Sasuke waved back a little shyly, and Naruto just turned away – and got off the bus as I gazed at it disappear from sight.

_Well,_ I thought, _my entire school_ _day was not all that bad. . .except for the fact that I broke my own promise of not associating with him._

I sighed.

Why did I always have to get tangled up with people I tried to avoid?

–

**Naruto.**

"That girl is annoying," I mumbled.

Sasuke didn't reply. He just stared out the window.

Sasuke never had much to say. He was always a boy of few words and didn't open up easily.

All Naruto really knew about his best friend was that he was an orphan since very young and wasn't taken to an orphange.

Instead, Sasuke had grown up becoming independent and taking care of himself.

_Just like me, _I thought.

Our pasts were similar and that was probably the only thing we had in common.

The bus halted to a stop, and it was my time to get off. I walked across the aisle, stuffing my hands into my pockets and turned around to Sasuke who hadn't moved an inch.

"See you," I said, not expecting an answer.

Without receiving much of a reply, I got off and headed home.

–

**Sakura.**

I stared out my window and folded and unfolded the smooth letter. It was already getting wrinkly from all the folding, but I didn't mind. The letter, it was precious to me. It was worth my life. I couldn't bear the thought of even losing it.

I slowly opened up the letter and reread it for the umpteenth time.

His voice washed over me, as I read it, comforting me a bit.

But as I read his careful cursive, his voice surrounded my mind, and I soon felt myself crying.

The tiny, pathetic tears dropped onto the letter and soaked up a small part of the letter.

I quickly folded it again and put it away as I gulped down my tears.

I couldn't cry, no matter how much I missed him. I promised I would be strong, and not cry.

I wiped away my tears and gazed up at the moon.

_Jeez, I miss you so much._


	3. Gray Cotton Candies

**Chapter Three**

**Naruto.**

The rain poured, making tiny puddles on the sidewalks and slipping against windows. The sky was gray and cloudy, like a bunch of gray cotton candies.

I smiled to myself. _A bunch of gray cotton candies._ It was what my mother used to say when it rained and the clouds were dark. It sounded pretty dumb, but every time it rained, I always stared out the window, mostly glancing up at the gray cotton candies, wondering if my mom was there, watching me.

She always loved the rain, as far as I could remember. When it rained, she would skip outside without an umbrella and without any rain protection gear. I remember that I always followed her out, and she would laugh and pick me up.

"_See that?" _She would say, pointing up at the sky.

I would stare at the dark clouds, blinking my eyes rapidly from the tickling raindrops.

"_Those are a bunch of gray cotton candies," _She'd say, chuckling at herself.

I'd wrinkle my nose at that and say, "_Gray cotton candies? Can we eat them?" _

"_Of course we can."_

"_So. . .why don't we go get some?"_

"_We can't. . .not now."_

"_Why not?"_

"_It's not time."_

"_When will it be time?"_

"_When we reach the sky."_

"_When is that going to be?"_

"_I don't know, but sooner or later, everyone will be able to taste the gray cotton candies," _She had said, smiling a little sadly to herself.

I opened my eyes at the vivid memory. It was one of the last memories I've had of her and it gave me the chills every time I thought of it since it almost seemed like she _knew _that she was going to taste those gray cotton candies soon.

I leaned away from the windowsill and grabbed my backpack and umbrella as I headed out to school.

–

**Sakura.**

I _love _the rain.

I love the sound of it, the feel of it, the _smell _of it.

I twirled my umbrella in my fingers as I walked carefully along the sidewalk, my sneakers lightly slapping against the tiny puddles.

"Oi, forehead."

I stopped at the oh-so-familiar voice and turned around, scowling. _Oh so my new nickname was "forehead" now?! _I thought furiously.

He was standing there, grinning widely with his hands jammed into his pockets and his umbrella tilted to the side.

"My name's Sakura," I snapped as the blond boy caught up with me.

"I know. I just thought that forehead would be a more appropriate name for you considering your humongous forehead of yours," He said, leaning towards me, obviously enjoying this.

"Why, you - !" I cried, balling up my fists.

"You guys are _already _fighting again?" Another familiar voice sighed.

We both turned to see Sasuke, his face having exasperation all over it.

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Eh, Sasuke-teme."

He swiftly stepped over to us.

"Hi," He said.

The three of us, once again, walked together in silence, behaving now that Sasuke was here when suddenly, I heard a small chuckle.

"_Gray cotton candies,_" I heard Naruto's voice quietly mumble.

I raised my eyebrow.

"_Gray cotton candies?" _I repeated, dumbfounded by the strange thing he said.

Naruto's face instantly turned red – which I thought was pretty cute since I never thought that I'd see a day when he'd be embarrassed – and he turned to me, glaring.

"W-what're you talking about?! I didn't say anything, believe it!" Naruto defended all too quickly.

"Shut up, dobe. You're too loud," Sasuke mumbled.

"I never knew gray cotton candies existed," I said.

"Shut it, forehead."

"Idiot."

"Guys," Sasuke's voice sounded, exasperated.

Silence.

We reached campus but before we could even step through the gateway, in half a second, I saw a blond haired girl rushing up towards us, pulling along an extremely embarrassed looking girl.

"Hi Naruto, Sasuke-kun," The blond girl greeted.

Her blue eyes traveled towards me, and she beamed.

"Hi there. What's your name?" The girl asked.

She seemed awfully bubbly.

"Oh, er, Sakura," I said, smiling a little.

"No, her real name's forehead girl."

"_Naruto_."

The blond girl bonked Naruto on the head – I secretly cheered – and scowled at him.

"Naruto, don't be so mean," She growled.

Then she turned to me and smiled sweetly.

"My name's Ino, and this is Hinata," She said indicating the shy girl next to her.

"H-hi," Hinata stammered.

"Hey," I said, smiling.

Suddenly though, Ino stopped smiling.

"Wait a minute, Sakura," She said, tapping a finger on her chin. "You don't happen to be thinking of stealing _my _Sasuke-kun, do you?"

My eyes widened.

"Eh? What?!" I blurted.

"I'm not yours," Sasuke grumbled.

Ino linked arms with him, and grinned dreamily at him.

"Of course you are, Sasuke-kun! One day you will see that we're _meant _to be together," She purred.

I smiled, fighting a laugh.

"D-don't worry, Ino. He's all yours," I said, chuckling.

_Besides, I have someone I love back home._

"Let go," Sasuke muttered, pulling away coldly.

He then pushed passed her and walked across the field, alone.

There was a moment of silence, and for half a second, Ino looked a little wounded but her expression was quickly replaced with a huge happy smile but even still, Hinata gazed at her a little worriedly.

Naruto, who was still rubbing the back of his head where Ino hit him, mumbled something under his breath and walked ahead too.

I stared at him for a second until Ino linked arms with me.

"Sakura, are you new here?"

"Yeah."

"Cool! Hinata and I will show you around, won't we?"

Hinata nodded politely.

"Um, if you're really willing to. . ."

"Of course we are! Come on. You're early and school's not going to start in a while, anyways."

I smiled as they led me across the field.

I suddenly felt the humidity and the wetness of the rain disappearing.

I pulled down my umbrella and glanced at the sky as I saw that the sky had cleared. I smiled, thinking of Naruto.

_No more gray cotton candies now, Naruto. _

–

**Naruto.**

_She's finally gone. I owe Ino one, _I thought as I reached the rooftop.

Sasuke was sitting there already, watching the sunrise now.

Since it was winter now, the nights were longer and the days were short which made it easier for us to reach school before sunrise.

I walked over to him and threw my umbrella across the rooftop.

We watched the sunrise in silence.

"Hey, Sasuke-teme. . ." I mumbled.

"Hm?"

"Do you ever think about your parents?"

Pause.

"Yes."

Silence.

"Do you ever think that. . .maybe. . .maybe it would be better if – if they were alive?"

Pause.

"I do think that sometimes. But I think it's for the best of me."

"Huh?"

"I think that. . .maybe them dying is just a _blessing in disguise_."

"A what?! Are those stupid crap books getting to your head?"

"Shut up, dobe. I'm trying to tell you something important."

"Okay, okay. I'm all ears."

"What I'm trying to say is that. . .like, for example, if our parents never passed away, we would have never met."

I thought about that for a while.

"That's true. . ."

"And. . .if my parents were still alive. . .I don't think I'd be as independent. . .I – I want to be independent and I hate being dependent on people even though sometimes, just sometimes, I want someone to hold onto though."

I knew how he felt.

I knew it so well.

I closed my eyes.

_He's the only one that understands me, _I thought.

–

**Sakura.**

After Ino and Hinata showed me around, we lounged at the cafeteria even though I was suffocating. I longed to be at the rooftop, watching the sunrise, but when I suggested that they come with me to the rooftop with me, they declined.

After a while of holding in my suffocation, I finally decided to go up alone.

When I reached the top of the flight of stairs, I opened the door a peek, and as expected, found Sasuke and Naruto leaning over the rail, talking and watching the sunset.

I debated whether or not to come in since I thought that they might be having an important conversation, but I finally thought, _who cares? I won't talk to them then _and stepped inside. As soon as I did, Naruto whipped around – I winced – and Sasuke turned around slowly to me.

"Oh, when I finally thought we lost you, forehead," Naruto said, in an utterly fake exasperated voice.

I snorted.

"I won't bother your precious talk. Go on, talk. I'm just here to watch the sunrise," I said, walking as far away from them.

But they didn't talk.

They were quiet.

I concentrated on the sunrise.

The sun slowly stretched behind the horizon, the few first rays peeking and shining light. The light gray sky lit up from the tiny candles of the rays. The sun kept pulling itself forcefully to come out and finally, it came.

I smiled, closing my eyes.

"_You know what I always wanted to do with you?" _I asked.

"_Kiss in the rain with me?"_

_I lightly punched him._

"_Psh, no."_

"_What? I thought all girls wanted to do that with their boyfriends."_

"_Well, I guess that is pretty romantic. . .but it's not what I've always wanted to do with you."_

"_Okay, then what is it?"_

"_You have to guess."_

"_God, I hate it when you say that."_

_I laughed._

"_Okay. . .does it have something to do with sex?"_

"_Sai!!!"_

"_Kidding, kidding."_

"_Okay fine, I'll tell you. I always wanted to watch the sunrise with you."_

"_The sunrise?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Sure, we can do that. But why sunrise. . .and not sunsets?"_

"_Because sunrises are so much happier than sunsets. Sunrises are introducing a brand new day."_

"_That sounds like you got it from a book."_

_I smiled and lightly punched him again as I said lightly, "Shut up."_

_I then leaned my head against his shoulder and –_

"Forehead! _Pinky? Earth to forehead girl_."

I instantly jumped up and turned around to see Naruto scowling at me.

"God, it's about time you wake up from your daydreams."

I blushed.

"S-shut up."

He smirked.

"Anyways, it's time to go. Time for shitty school to start," He said oh-so-enthusiastically.

I followed them out of the rooftop, and took a final glance behind me, looking at the sun one last time.

_I never got to see the sunrise with him. _


	4. Sometimes, it's Better not to Know

**Chapter Four **

**Naruto.**

It was getting really late and I was walking home alone.

Sasuke was staying at a cafe, studying for an exam on Monday, while Sakura went to go to Ino's house to pick up a CD.

The alleyway was deserted and no one was around but that didn't really bother me.

It didn't bother, that is, until a gang showed up and surrounded me.

I stopped at my tracks, glancing up at them, my heart pounding loudly as one of them – the leader I guessed – stepped up to me and smirked.

"I'll let you go if you hand over some cash," He said.

I glared at him, clenching my fists.

"I've got no cash, bastard," I replied haughtily.

"Hmm. . ." The leader said, tapping a finger on his chin, pretending to think. Then his lips finally stretched into a nasty grin as he said bluntly, "In that case, _get him._"

The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, pain tearing through my body as the gang punched and kicked me.

I was getting beaten up, and I was humiliated.

But I finally jumped up, my body screaming for help, and clenched my fists as I weakly punched them, missing at times, but I got a few people. As I was fighting the guys, at the corner of my eye I saw the leader looking through my wallet which had a few dollars indie.

He took out the money and stuffed it in his pocket.

"_Bastard_!!" I shouted as I lunged at him.

But before I could shoot a punch at him, his gang tore me away from him as they pushed me to the ground and punched and kicked me some more.

Sweat drenched me as it got worse and worse to breathe.

I actually wondered if I would see Mom and Dad again this way.

At that point of view, I almost wished they'd kick me harder, and faster.

At that point of view, I almost wished they'd point a gun to my head and shoot.

The pain tore through my skin, body, face, everywhere, and finally darkness surrounded me.

–

The first thing I saw was the gentle rays of sunlight pushing passed the curtains – curtains I didn't recognize which was always a bad sign.

I groaned as I tried to recall what happened last night.

I wondered if I got roaring drunk again and slept with another girl. But that couldn't make sense since pain was dully kicking throughout my whole body.

I blinked slowly a few times, taking a good look around the room.

It was definitely a girl's room.

Pink curtain, organized room, a few stuffed dolls here and there.

I finally forced myself to sit up and I realized that I was bandaged up from head to toe.

Then, I remembered. I remembered about the gang beating me up, and getting unconscious.

I didn't remember anything after that.

"Hey."

I instantly turned to see the pink-haired girl at the doorway.

_Sakura, _I almost whispered.

Her expression was completely blank and she had a tray of good-smelling food in her tray – it made my mouth water with hunger.

Sakura stepped over to me and placed the tray down on the small table next to my – I mean _her _bed.

We were quiet for a while.

"What. . .what happened?" I asked quietly.

She shrugged.

"I don't know. I was just heading home when I saw you sprawled out on the sidewalk. Your blood was pouring through the whole sidewalk and it was a pretty disgusting sight. I was shocked and the cuts and bruises on you were pretty severe so I took you to my place and treated you," She replied simply.

"Wha-? You could've just taken to me to the hospital at least. It would do you less work," I mumbled.

She turned to face me as she looked like she was trying to fight a smile, or the urge of saying something.

"Since when do you care whether or not I have more work to do? Anyways, the truth is. . ." She paused for a moment then sighed. "I took you in my house and treated you myself for a selfish reason."

This surprised me, alright.

"Huh?"

"You see. . .I'm heading for a medical doctor career. . .so. . .I basically took you in to test how good I was at treating severe injuries. . .I know, I know, selfish of me and I should have taken you to professional real medical doctors but I – well, I think I did a fairy good job. . ."

I took a good look at myself again and I felt the pain dulling.

"You _did _do a pretty good job."

"Thanks."

Silence.

"Anyways, it's a good thing that it's Saturday so you can rest," She finally said, standing up. "You should stay in bed until tomorrow and then you'll be just fine."

Before I could to protest that I was completely fine and could leave _right now, _she turned to leave.

I then, almost told her to not leave me.

I almost told her to stay with me.

But I stopped myself just in time to scold myself – basically when I scold myself, I ask myself, _what the hell are you doing, man?! - _and I watched her leave the room.

The room was quiet.

_She took me in, _I thought. _She treated me. . .even though. . .even though all we basically do is fight and argue._

But this time, this time, we didn't fight.

I shooed the thought away as I wolfed down the food she gave me and then I tested how well I was.

I was able to stand up and walk around a little except I was extremely slow.

I walked around her room, checking out her desk and such. I even opened her drawers even though it was rude of me but I didn't care.

I finally opened the last drawer and actually found something inside – her other drawers were completely empty. I guessed this was because she just moved in – and found a small blue notebook inside.

I took it out and opened it, but as I did, a small slip of folded up paper fell down.

I picked it up.

On it said,

_To Sakura-san_

in need cursive handwriting.

I opened up the paper.

_Dear Sakura-san,_

_It's only been a few days and I'm already missing you here. School's not the same without you and your friends have been acting a lot glummer and boring than usual. We all miss you and wish you were here._

_Anyways, how are you? How's your new school? I hope you've made new friends already and I hope they're treating you right. (If they're not, tell me and I'll come all the way there and beat them up for you! Actually, you probably wouldn't do that considering that you're a strong girl and would beat them up yourself. Haha.) And I hope you're doing fine._

_Your parents also miss you here. They're coping better than the rest of us though since they know you best and know that you'll only be saddened if you found out that they were missing you a lot. They told me to at least tell you that they missed you, but not **too **much when I asked them if they wanted to say anything to their daughter, haha. _

_And since I'm not as unselfish as your parents, I'll tell you this, I miss you **a lot **and I see you everywhere. I see ice cream, and I think about the time you slapped me and pushed ice cream on my t-shirt on purpose. I see the library and I remember how much you loved reading and even on dates, you would tuck a small book in your purse and even read when you're walking which annoyed me. I see the tall oak tree at the park, and I remember how I gave you your first kiss there, under the tall oak tree. And I see sunrises and sunsets, and I remember how you told me that you always wanted to see the sunrise with me and not sunsets. The sad thing is, we never got to see the sunrise together._

_Anyways, I shouldn't make you sad. Please don't feel so burdened and sad by this letter and especially by that last paragraph I wrote. It just flowed out of my mind and heart and I couldn't stop myself. I'm sorry, please forgive me. I'm really not all that depressed as I sound, really. _

_Well I'll be enclosing this letter here. Please tell me everything going on there and reply as soon as possible. _

_Oh and I love you, Sakura. With all my heart, I really love you._

_Love, _

_Sai_

I stood there in silence as I finished reading the letter. I finally quietly put the letter back into the notebook and back in the drawer as I walked back to the bed, walking like a zombie.

Nothing was going through my mind much, yet so many things were rushing through my mind.

_She has a boyfriend, _I thought stupidly.

I didn't know why that bothered me so much.

But for the rest of the day, I just sat there even though I was planning to go to the living room and tell Sakura that I was perfectly fine and could go home myself.

But plans changed after I read the letter.


	5. The Truth's NOT Spilled

**Chapter Five **

**Sakura.**

I stared dully at the pages of the book, but didn't read. I _couldn't _read. That is, I couldn't read while knowing that Naruto was in my room, doing who knows what?

I gulped.

_What if that idiot is sniffing through my stuff? Looking through my drawers?__** Reading my letter from Sai? **_I couldn't seem to bear the thought of him finding my letter, finding out about him, for some reason. I just felt a little, well, overprotective over that letter. I didn't know why, but it just made me feel a little uneasy.

I quickly shook the thought away.

_No, Naruto wouldn't do that. . .he's probably just dozing off,_ I thought.

And then, there was the question in my head, _why __**did **__I bring Naruto in? _Sure, I wanted to practice my medical skills, but that was only part of the reason.

As much as I wouldn't like to admit it, I was _scared, frightened _when I saw him, sprawled out like that on the sidewalk, blood soaking up his shirt and the road.

With trembling hands, I had picked him up and swung his arm around my shoulder as I dashed to my house. I really didn't know why I went home when I should have went to the hospital except that the next thing I knew, I was bandaging and adding medicine on him.

I was really scared, and I was panicking as I saw his face so pale and lifeless which wasn't the Naruto I knew. I was so desperate to bring back the Naruto I knew. The Naruto that was feisty, annoying, hyper, hot-tempered, dumb.

Not this _lifeless body. _

I almost broke down out of fear, out of wondering, _what am I going to do? What am I going to do?! _When I first brought him home. I was being stupid, of course. Normally, people would phone the hospital, but I just stared, horrified, at him as the same question ran through my head dumbly for a few moments.

I didn't even know _why _I was so scared.

He wasn't fatally wounded even though his wounds were pretty severe.

I sighed as I put down my book. With these thoughts running through my mind, there was no way I'd be able to read.

Suddenly, I heard my bedroom door open and turned to see Naruto step out of my room.

_Speak of the devil._

"Er, Sakura. . . " He mumbled. He looked a little uneasy.

Even this afternoon (God, he sleeps in so much) he seemed quieter and less spirited than usual. It was probably the awkward thought of being in my house, room, bed. It was probably because he felt weird being here since we were always usually fighting. I felt a little awkward and uneasy about that too.

"I think I'm well enough to head back home now."

"Like Hell you are! You can barely walk. Go back to bed."

He paused and glanced around.

"Eh, wait a minute. . .er, where are your parents?"

I looked away. "They're at my home."

He seemed to understand that when I meant, _my home, _I meant where I came from 'cause he nodded understandingly.

"Oh."

"Naruto, don't be so haughty and go back inside. You still seem extremely exhausted."

"No, I'm really well enough to – "

But at that same moment, he cringed and clutched at his stomach which was bandaged (his bandages needed to be changed soon since the blood was still soaking it up continuously.)

I sighed, annoyed, as I stood up and took his shoulder and hand as I led him back to my room and set him down on my bed.

"I told you, you'll be able to go back tomorrow morning," I growled. "Is it that bad to be in my house?"

He sneered, his usual spirit coming back. "Yeah, the girlishness of the house is making me _sicker._"

"Haha," I replied sarcasticlally.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

I was a little surprised since no one usually came over.

"I wonder who that is," I mumbled more to myself as I exited out of my room and went to get the door.

I was surprised to see Ino, Sasuke, and Hinata at my door. Ino was beaming and clinging onto a very annoyed looking Sasuke, as Hinata was smiling shyly.

"Oh, hey," I greeted as I remembered how I contacted them about Naruto's injuries.

"We're here to see Naruto. . ." Sasuke said quietly. He tried to hide the worry from his voice and face by replacing it with a cool blank look and a emotionless voice, but I could still see he was worried from the way his voice seemed a little anxious and there were still a few worry lines on his face.

"Sure," I said as I led them inside.

I sort of felt like a real nurse as I led them inside my room.

"N-Naruto-kun!"

"Naruto!!"

". . ."

Hinata and Ino instantly rushed up to Naruto as they questioned him nonstop as Sasuke just sort of hung back a bit, standing next to me. Naruto answered quickly and rather exasperatedly but as he did, they just kept asking more and more questions until I finally broke up their conversation by asking them if they'd like to see around my house in order to give Sasuke and Naruto some time since he looked as if he was a little desperate to talk to Naruto, _alone. _

–

**Naruto.**

The girls finally left me alone as they followed Sakura out of the bedroom, leaving just me with Sasuke. He stared at me with blank eyes until they were gone, and when they left, his eyes grew to slight worry mixed with annoyance.

"Damn dobe," He muttered as he stepped up to me. "You just have to fuck it up every time, don't you?"

I shifted my eyes. "Shut up. . ."

He sighed. "What happened?"

"Just got beat up by a gang again," I replied as I sighed.

"_Again_?"

Pause.

"You seem to be getting beaten up by gangs a lot. . ." Sasuke muttered softly.

I shrugged, trying to act as if it was no big deal. "Lots of drunk crazy guys at night."

"I roam around at night too and I've never gotten beaten up," He replied suspciously.

"Must be because you're too pretty."

I felt a light smack across my head.

"Shut up."

I grinned a little, then frowned.

"Sasuke, I really don't feel like explaining anything right now," I said with a hint of whine in my voice as I lied down on the bed and pulled the bedsheets over myself.

I felt the bedsheets getting pulled out as I peeked out of my arms to see Sasuke glaring down at me.

"Naruto, you can't hide what's going on forever. . .gangs have always been chasing you which I found was kind of strange since it has only happened so many times to you."

I avoided eye contact. I couldn't tell him. I just couldn't. If I told him the truth, he would hate me forever and our friendship – our friendship that I cherished so much – would be broken forever. I couldn't risk that. He had been my one and only friend that has sticked with me since as far as I can remember. If I told him the truth now, he would even get revenge on me somehow. _Kill _me, even.

I clenched my fists.

_I'm sorry, Sasuke._

"Fine. . .it's because I owe so many debts to people, alright?" I growled.

Lies came out easily now.

Ever since my parents passed away, I lied constantly.

I even lied to myself.

His eyes softened a little but a twinge of annoyance was still stuck.

"_Idiot,_" He muttered. "I'll help you pay your stupid debts."

"No, I can handle it on my own."

"Damn it, here I am trying to help you and you - "

"_Sasuke_, just leave me alone. I can pay for my own debts, so can you leave now? I'm tired," I lied again.

I hated lying.

I did.

Especially to Sasuke.

But I had to.

_Just this one time forgive me, Sasuke, _I thought as we stared at each other for a while.

He let out a sigh.

"Fine. . ." He said, jamming his hands into his pockets.

And then he left the room.

I sank into my bed and sighed.

_Sasuke, I'm sorry. . .I'm sorry. . ._


	6. So Many Memories

**A/N: This is going to be filled with flashbacks. So all the italicized chunks with the quotes and stuff are flashbacks just to let you know.  
****You COULD skip this chapter if you want. . .but I'd highly suggest you to read it if you want to find out why Naruto was so sorry in the last chapter and why the gangs are really chasing after him. And some other shit. (You can skip Sakura's parts if you want though since they're sort of unimportant. But it's about how she met Sai and all so yeah whatever.)  
I'll stop blabbing now. **

**Chapter Six**

**Naruto.**

"_My parents died in a fire too," he had said. _

_I glanced up from the ground to see a boy who seemed no older than me, staring at me. I didn't recognize him so I wondered why he was at my parents' funeral, but then again, I didn't recognize a lot of the people here. _

"_W-what?" I stammered before I could stop myself._

"_No. . .they were **killed **in a fire," the boy went on. "Someone killed them intentionally. I just know it."_

_I was speechless. The boy seemed so sure of himself. He had dark onyx eyes that were cold and hard, pale skin, and dark hair. He would've looked pretty handsome if he didn't seem so grimy and messy. _

"_When I find the murderer. . .I won't kill them. Instead, I'll kill every single person close to them so that they could feel the same suffering as I am." _

_My eyes widened. Here I was, listening to a boy who seemed twelve or eleven, committing a promise of killing someone._

_He seemed so emotionless, but his voice slightly shook with anger. _

_The boy turned back to me. "Maybe your parents were killed too. By the same person."_

_I was taken aback. Who would want to kill my parents?! My parents. . .they seemed so nice, smart, generous. . ._

"_Er. . ." I only managed to say._

"_We could search for the murderer together."_

_Someone murdered **my** parents?_

"_And take our revenge together."_

_Take. . .revenge?_

_Together?!_

_I have had always been an outcast and no one had ever offered to play soccer or anything with me. When I tried to join in a game the other kids were playing, they glared and scowled, and stuck their tongues out at me as they walked away and shunned me. _

_After I finally decided that they hated my guts for who knows why, I stopped trying altogether. I was always alone at recess, and in the hallways, people stared and pointed and whispered to each other as if there was something about me I was missing. _

_So I was a bit surprised and kind of delighted when someone whom I didn't even know offered to um. . .well take revenge with me?_

_I thought that perhaps this was his way of becoming friends with someone._

_So I agreed._

"_By the way, what's your name?" I asked when he turned to leave._

"_Sasuke Uchiha," He replied without glancing back._

_Then he left the room._

I sighed as the memory that seemed so old but so vivid washed over me. It was my first encounter with Sasuke and it was a pretty strange one too.

Sasuke was still in search of his parents' murderer, but he was taking it slow. I, on the other hand, wasn't exactly in search too for I found out the truth long ago.

I knew who his parents' murderer was.

It was _my _dad.

–

**Sakura.**

"_Everyone, this is a new transfer student. His name is Sai, so help him around, alright?" The teacher said, smiling as an extremely pale boy stood next to her._

_His dark black hair and eyes totally contrasted from his pale white skin. And his smile._

_His smile was so fake._

_The first time I saw him, I studied him like I always do when I first meet people._

_He went to go take a seat far away from me and I never would've guessed that he'd become my future boyfriend. Sure, he was good looking and all, but he wasn't exactly my type. _

_When I first saw him, I merely thought, 'oh a new boy' and then I brushed the thought away like any other student in the room. I never tried to become friends or interact with the boy. It was he who interacted with me first. In fact, I never really **wanted **to interact with him. My guts told me he was trouble, and I was totally eager to run away from it. But from my past experience, I knew that somehow my life would get tangled up with him like how trouble always got tangled up with me. _

_My guts and inferences were right when the next day, Sai walked up to me._

"_Hi," He said._

_I raised an eyebrow at him. "Hey."_

"_I was wondering if you would like to go with me somewhere sometime something?" _

_I fought back a smile. Was this his way of asking someone out?_

"_If you're trying to ask me out then, no thanks. Not interested." I knew that I was too blunt and even a little rude and mean, but I found out that this was the best way to break it to guys that you really weren't interested. Be blunt and rude – though sometimes, sensitive guys got hurt and called you ugly names like bitch. _

"_Oh no, I'm not trying to ask you out," He quickly responded._

"_Then. . .?"_

"_I was just asking if you'd like to go with me somewhere sometime something?"_

"_And exactly where is that somewhere, and when is that sometime, and what is that something?"_

_He chuckled. _

"_You're pretty. . .different," He finally said, inspecting me._

_Different? How was I different? I was like every other girl. I loved shopping, cared about how I looked, liked boys, had friends, liked a few sports. . ._

"_I'm not different," I said almost defensively._

"_Oh don't take it as offense," He said. "It's a compliment. . .I've been searching for someone. . .**different.**"_

"_Well, I'm sorry to break it to you but I'm no different from any other girl."_

_And with that, I walked passed him and left._

_But from that day on, I couldn't stop thinking about him. _

_From that day on, he stopped talking to me and I stopped talking to him even though I longed to. For some reason, day after day, his voice echoed in my mind. It was almost driving me nuts! I finally decided that I would speak to him again._

_I pursed my lips._

_Why did I **always** have to break my own promises? _

_After a few days of not talking to each other, I finally worked up the nerve to step up to him._

_It was after school._

"_Hi," I said, not daring to glance at him.  
_

"_Oh it's you. Hello," He said._

"_Hi. . .um. . ." I murmured._

"_Oh by the way. . .what's your name?"_

"_You – you called me different and you don't even know my name?!"_

_He chuckled._

"_I did, didn't I?"_

"_Mhm. . ."_

"_Well. . .?"_

"_My name's Sakura Haruno."_

"_Sakura Haruno. . ."_

"_Right."_

"_It fits you. You know, cherry blossoms and your pink hair – my God, is that your natural hair color?"_

_I laughed. _

"_Yeah. I'm used to that question."_

"_I'm not surprised."_

_Pause._

"_So. . .are you up for going somewhere sometime something now?" He asked._

_I fidgeted._

_Say no, no! You know he's trouble!_

"_Er. . .yeah. . ." _

_You suck. _

_He grinned widely. "Great! So I'll pick you up tomorrow at six?" _

"_Eh? Um, sure."_

_He smiled._

How I longed to see that smile again.

–

**Naruto.**

My dad had been part of a professional gang. He was one of the hit men, assassins, etc. And he was one of the best. I didn't find this out until one day a gang dragged me to a dark alleyway and beat the daylights out of me. When they finally finished, I had asked them what the hell was their problem and why so many people were after me.

They merely laughed.

"_You don't know?!" The leader had said, laughing so loudly._

"_I'm not in the mood to stick around here, so spill it, bastard!!" I shouted, panting as his gang held onto my arms so that I wouldn't get away or do something "stupid" according to the leader. _

_He smirked. _

"_Fine, I'll tell you. I'll tell you the whole truth. The painful truth that you're longing to know about."_

_I listened._

"_Your dad was a murderer, a hit man, whatever. He worked for a highly professional gang called Trap. Your dad would run around, killing anyone, torturing anyone his boss told him too. He was a selfish bastard," The leader spat._

_My eyes widened._

_What?! No. . .no. . .no. . ._

"_You're lying!!" I screamed. This couldn't be it._

_The vague image of my father. . ._

_so kind, generous, smart. . ._

_I shut my eyes._

_No, no, no!!_

_He laughed again. "I'm not. The reason we're all out to get you is for revenge. It's mere revenge, boy. Your stupid dad killed someone close to all of us, that's why we're all out to get revenge on his son. I bet he's begging for mercy in Hell right now! Ha, he definitely deserves it - "_

"_**Shut up**!!!" I screamed as I pulled away from the gang and lunged at the leader, punching him. _

_The gang pulled me back again and the leader stood up, brushing his hand against his bloody lip._

"_You're feisty, aren't you?" He asked._

_Then he smiled. "Should I feed you another painful truth?"_

_No, no, no . . .stop. . .stop. . .stop. I don't want to know. . .  
_

_His grin widened. _

"_Your best friend, Sasuke Uchiha, his parents were killed by your dad."_

_My heart stopped thumping._

_I couldn't hear anything._

_My whole body seemed to numb._

_**NO!!!!**_

–

**Sakura. **

_Evening fell and we were at the front steps of my house._

_I placed my hand on the doorknob and glanced back at Sai who was smiling at me._

"_Thanks for today," I said, smiling. And I meant it. I had a really good time._

"_Anytime."_

_It was awkward for a moment._

_Wasn't this the part where the guy gives the girl a light kiss?_

_He leaned over._

_Oh God, oh God, oh God, I squirmed as I pursed my lips. _

_His lips grew into a grin as he leaned back and chuckled._

_I blushed furiously._

"_You've never been kissed, have you?"_

_I didn't say anything._

"_And you've never been on a date?"_

_Silence._

"_So. . .I'm your first date. . .ever?"_

_Silence._

_His smile widened. "Wow."_

_My face was getting so heated up. _

"_S-s-shut up," I stammered._

"_I feel really proud. . ." He said, glancing at the sky. Then he turned back at me. "I'll save you your first kiss for somewhere really special so that it'll be a worthwhile first kiss. So save your lips for me, okay?" He winked then he hopped into his car and left._

_I blinked rapidly as I felt almost faint. _

_I touched my lips which were still glossy and blushed and smiled a little._

_I decided that I would do as he'd told me to do. I would save my first kiss just for him. _


	7. Vacation Gone Wrong

**Chapter Seven**

**Naruto.**

Spring break finally rolled by and everyone finally got some rest. We were all pretty exhausted from the exams we had last week, so for a few days, we just slept (and ate ramen. Well, I ate ramen.)

That is, until the third day, we decided to go on a trip together – and I mean "we" as in Ino, Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke, me, _and _Shikamaru. (It took a while to convince that lazy ass to follow though since he kept insisting that he needed more rest.)

We drove to the beach and it was beautiful there. I hadn't been to the beach in such a long time and I was pretty hyped up about it.

As soon as we arrived there, I instantly jumped into the ocean and just kinda swam there as I let the salty waves wash over me.

After a bit of swimming around with Sakura and Hinata (Shikamaru was busy sleeping, Ino had to "work on her tan," and Sasuke was reading – even at the beach) we went back to the surface and I suggested a game of volleyball to the guys.

"I want to play too!" Sakura quickly piped up.

I turned to her slowly then sighed as if I was about to explain something real simple to a five year old.

"_Sakura_, you'd be going against _guys _here," I hinted.

She shot a death glare at me. "Are you being _sexist_?"

I quickly put up my hands in defense. "No, no. Don't take it the wrong way. I'm just saying that. . .well. . .technically, guys are usually stronger than - " I began.

She placed her hands on her hips. "You _are _being sexist!"

And with that, she picked up the volleyball then stuck her tongue out at me. "I'm going to play and show you that I'm just about as tough as any of you!"

Then she walked towards the volleyball net.

"Women. . .they're so troublesome," Shikamaru sighed as he stood up.

For once, I agreed with him.

Ino suddenly took off her sunglasses and stood up too. "I want to play too."

I sighed. If you couldn't convince Sakura to _not _do something, you'd definitely not be able to convince stubborn old Ino either so I just gave up and we all headed towards the net where Sakura was already warming up.

"Hinata, want to play too?" Ino asked Hinata.

"Um. . ." She blushed. "I think I'll just watch."

"Okay. You can be the referee," Ino said with a wink.

Soon we started playing.

It was Sakura, Ino and Shikamaru against Sasuke and me. It took a while to get the teams right though since complaints kept shooting up about the teams so we kept having to change the teams. Even on the final decision, Ino was upset about the teams though for she wanted to be with Sasuke but finally agreed and we _finally _started the game.

But, it wasn't before long until we started fighting about the rules – Sakura and me.

"That was _not _out of boundary! It was _right there _and the out of line is _over there_!" Sakura snapped.

"No! God, do you have any eyes?! The ball went _way passed _that line!" I cried, throwing up my arms.

"Guys, _enough_!" Ino cried exasperatedly as she flopped down on the beach towel next to Hinata. She turned to her. "Hinata, what do you think? _You're_ the referee."

Sakura and I both turned to Hinata expectantly.

I could tell she was pressured.

"U-u-um well. . ." She stammered, obviously not liking the uncomfortable attention.

Sakura sighed. "Hinata, just say the truth. We won't get mad, we promise." Then she shot a death glare at me, gritting her teeth. "_**Right**__, Naruto_?"

I glanced away. "Yeah, sure, whatever. . ." I mumbled.

She swallowed. "W-w-well, honestly, I-I don't know b-b-because I wasn't really p-paying a-a-attention."

She was stuttering a lot more than usual which meant she was _extremely _nervous and pressured.

I sighed.

"I still say I'm right."

Sakura scowled at me. "Oh no you do- "

"Guys," Sasuke's voice sounded behind us.

We turned to see him walking towards us. "It's just a game."

Sakura and I exchanged a quick look then we both looked away.

"We're going to go for a walk," Sasuke said as he pulled Ino, Hinata, and Shikamaru along.

"Eh? What?!" Sakura quickly stammered.

"By the time we return, you two better patch up!" Ino cried over her shoulder, sticking her tongue out.

_Those jerks. _

–

**Sakura. **

After a while, Naruto and I had quietly sat down on two separate beach towels, with a bit of a distance between the two of us as we both faced the ocean. It was quiet and slightly awkward for ever since the guys ditched us, we shut up altogether and simply sat down and watched the kids run into the ocean and the couples walk along the shore, hand in hand.

Even thought it was a little awkward, it was also a kind of nice; to have a small quiet communication between us. We would speak when we were ready. The only problem was, I didn't know when we'd be ready. It could take hours or days.

Finally though, Naruto cleared his throat awkwardly. I didn't dare make eye contact with him though.

"So. . ." He said uncomfortably as he leaned forward and brushed his index finger along the sand, trying to look extremely interested in the soft sand.

I pursed my lips. _Just say it, just say it._

"I'm sorry."

My eyes widened as Naruto and I both exchanged looks for we both said the same words at the same time.

Then we both quickly looked away and I let out a small giggle.

"That was stupid," I finally said.

"What was?"

"Our argument. And we're apologizing over a stupid argument."

I heard him chuckle a little.

"Our arguments are always stupid."

"True."

Silence.

The sky seemed to darken a little and the sun turned a little more orange as it very slowly crawled towards the end of the ocean. The sunset was finally arriving.

We stayed quiet as we watched it.

It was really breathtaking, the sunset. It was much more beautiful than watching the sunset on the school rooftop for as it got closer to the ocean, the reflection glimmered and made it a whole new effect. I almost wished I didn't see the sunset from here because then, I'd become spoiled and the sunset from the school rooftop wouldn't be as breathtaking anymore.

I sighed as I smiled.

"It's beautiful," I murmured.

"Mhm. . ." He mumbled in agreement.

The breeze got a little colder so I wrapped my towel around myself as I slowly turned to him. He was continuously gazing at the sunset until he turned to me too.

We locked eyes for a moment and for some reason, I couldn't turn away. He didn't turn away either. I just kept on staring at him. Well, I was more staring at his blue eyes, his blue eyes that I didn't seem to notice before. He had beautiful eyes. They glimmered and they reminded me of the ocean or even the sunset which was a weird analogy.

Then, he leaned over towards me.

I didn't know what he was doing but I didn't stop him. I was just frozen like a statue and my brain just kind of went blank as he got so close that I could smell his salty hair and for a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me but we just kept on staring.

I never noticed that he had very light freckles before, but he did so I counted them.

He had twelve.

Then, he quickly backed away and went back to gazing at the sunset as if nothing at all happened.

I blushed furiously as I realized what just happened then turned back to the sky too.

It was extremely awkward and I didn't know what he did or why he did it. But I wondered, why didn't I stop him when he came close to me and I thought that he was perhaps going to kiss me?

Even I didn't know the answer.

"Hey guys! Did you guys patch up yet?!"Ino's voice called from behind.

I was relieved as we both turned to see the guys heading back towards us, paper bags in hands.

"We got you some food," Ino said, grinning.

"It was such a drag though," Shikamaru added.

I smiled.

–

**Naruto.**

Night finally fell and we all headed towards the hotel which we all pitched in to help pay for. (I couldn't pay as much as the others though since I didn't exactly have as much money as them and besides, I was broke at the moment.)

The girls giggled and went into their room which was next to ours as the guys and I walked into ours.

I gaped in awe as I walked through the hall of our room as if I was walking in Heaven. I then slowly sat down on one of the beds, still gaping.

"Close that mouth of yours. You look even a bigger idiot than you are if that's possible," Sasuke said.

Shikamaru chuckled.

I ignored them. "_Jeez_, this is _fancy_," I mumbled as I looked around.

I definitely wouldn't mind staying here for the rest of my life.

Shikamaru went to bed quickly – I wasn't really surprised – and Sasuke sat down on his and read – which I wasn't so surprised by either.

I went out into the balcony.

The wind was pretty chilly now since the hotel was right in front of the ocean and it was nighttime. I could even hear the waves crashing towards the surface.

I frowned as the memory of me leaning over Sakura washed over me.

I whacked my head.

_Why, why, **why **did I do that?! _

I sighed.

I didn't know why. We were just staring at each other and for some reason, I _had _to get closer to her. So subconsciously, I leaned over to her and I counted all the shades of green in her eyes. Hazel, forest green, pine green. . .

We just kept staring and staring into each others eyes, and I almost. . .I almost. . .

I blushed at the thought and covered my face in my hands as I rested my arms on the rail in shame and embarrassment.

_I almost **kissed **her._

That is, until my inner voice woke me up by screaming, 'what the hell do you think you're doing?!'

But she didn't stop me.

She didn't punch me.

She didn't squirm and glance away.

I bit my lower lip and shook my head.

Confusion just kept running over me.

–

It was the next day and we packed up left to go home. As much as we wanted to stay for a bit longer, we couldn't for we only had enough money for one night.

Things were still pretty awkward between Sakura and I and we didn't say a word to each other all through the morning. The guys seemed oblivious to this though despite the fact that they were probably more used to hearing us bicker than stay quiet to each other.

She knew and I knew what happened at the beach during sunset.

I just wished to go back in time and change everything but I knew that that wasn't possible.

_Damn God and his stupid time rules. . ._

–

**Sakura. **

"Thanks for dropping me off," I smiled at Ino.

"No problem. It was fun. We should go on a vacation all together again, don't you think?" She said.

I gave her a weak grin as I remembered the awkward moment when Naruto leaned closer to me. "Um, maybe."

She smiled. "Well I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" (All of us decided to meet up again at a cafe the next day and just hang out.)

"Sure, see you," I said as I waved and she drove away.

I picked up my backpack that I carried to the beach and swung it over my shoulders as I headed to my apartment.

As I drew closer to my apartment, I saw a teenage boy standing in front of my door.

I stopped at my tracks as my heart skipped a beat.

_Dark hair._

_Dark eyes._

_Pale skin._

"S-Sai?!"

He turned to me.

"Sakura!!"


	8. First Impressions

**Chapter Eight**

**Sakura.**

"Sai, is that really you?!"

He smiled. The smile I missed so much.

"You're silly," He said softly as he dropped his bags and took a step towards me as he brushed a few strands of my hair behind my ear.

I still couldn't believe it was him.

It was really him. He came! Sai was _here._

We just stood there for a while, studying each other's faces. It wasn't unusual, it was what we always did when we separated for too long.

I found out his face got thinner and he had light dark circles under his eyes. His lips were chapped and overall, he looked extremely exhausted yet extremely glad.

I frowned.

"Have you not been sleeping or eating properly?" I asked.

He glanced away, embarrassed.

"Must that be the first thing you say to me?" He murmured. "And, aren't you going to invite me inside?"

"Don't change the subject!" I exclaimed, but I reached into my pocket and took out my keys as I opened the door and turned back to him as I pushed the door wide open. "I-I can't believe it's you, though. . ."

He grinned as he picked up his bags and walked inside. _Is he staying here for a while? _I thought as I eyed his bags, butbefore I could ask, a more urgent question escaped from my lips.

"How did you find my place?" I demanded as I closed the door behind him.

"You sound as if you don't want me to be here," He pouted, trying to sound hurt.

I fought back a grin. "I'm just surprised that you came here without any notice whatsoever. . ."

He shrugged. "I like surprising people."

Pause.

He took a step closer to me and wrapped his arms around me. It was a hug that felt so familiar to me that I lost. I hugged him back and I smiled as I buried my face into his shoulder.

"Sai. . ." I murmured.

"_With all my heart_," He whispered. "_I really do love you_. . ."

–

I soon found out that he asked around to get to my place and besides, my address was in the letters I sent to him. I also found out that he was planning to stay until the end of spring break – if I didn't mind, that is, and of course I didn't mind! (We were still arguing about who would sleep where though. He insisted that I sleep in my room and he sleep on the couch since I was the owner of the house, but I insisted that he sleep in my room and I sleep on the couch since he was the guest!)

I was so excited and happy that I didn't want to be a second away from him. We were constantly at most four inches away – besides bathroom breaks of course! - and we couldn't stop hugging and clinging to each other. Kissing was a different story, though. . .I felt a little awkward and shy to go up to him and kiss him since I hadn't seen him so long and I guess he felt the same way too. It didn't really bother me though, I was sure that we would kiss again sometime and besides, hugging and just staying close was fine by me too for now.

"Oh by the way," I said suddenly during dinner. "I was planning to meet up with some friends tomorrow, and I'm wondering if you want to tag along? I really want to show you off to my friends." I grinned.

He chuckled. "I suppose I am rather good-looking."

"Don't get so pig-headed!"

We laughed.

"Well, I guess I wouldn't mind meeting your new friends," He finally said, smiling. "I'm curious about them."

I giggled. "They're all so different from each other, but we all get along well. . .well, that is except for this one guy," I murmured as a slight frown settled upon my face and as my thoughts started to drift off.

Sai raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

I quickly glanced up and gave him a reassuring smile. "Oh, it's no one. Just some annoying guy. He's still my friend though."

Sai gave me a gentle smile.

"Thanks," He said.

"For what?" I asked, surprised.

"For letting me stay here."

"Psh, you know that I wouldn't mind you staying here for the rest of your life!"

He smiled.

"Speaking of that, we still haven't decided on who would sleep where."

I gave him a playful frown. "True."

Pause.

Sai suddenly blushed a little which was unusual for him. He was hardly ever embarrassed.

"Well. . .I guess – I guess it'll be okay if we both sleep in your room. . .that is if it's alright with you," He quickly added. "And it's not like I'm going to pull off anything dirty."

I chuckled. "I suppose you're right. . ." I muttered, and blushed a little as I picked at a pea with my fork.

"I wish you'd have a little more faith in me," He replied with a playful smirk on his face.

"It's not you, it's me! I'm worried that _I'll _pull off something dirty," I joked, grinning.

He chuckled as he stood up from his seat and walked up towards me as he enveloped me in his arms. I leaned against his chest.

We stayed like that for a while, just enjoying each other's touch.

"I missed you," I finally said. I didn't realize how much I missed him until now – until I finally saw him.

"I missed you more," He responded and I could almost hear the smile in his voice.

–

**Naruto.**

"_Naruto. . ." _

_I turned to see Sasuke. He was glaring at me, his fists clenched._

"_What's wrong, teme?" I demanded, a little worried from his glare and his clenched fists. I've never seen him so angry like this at **me **before. He was usually only slightly frustrated or annoyed with me, but never ever this mad. _

"_You – you traitor!" He screamed. "How **dare **you? Your father **killed **my **family**! He **killed **them! And – and you never told me!! You kept the secret all along! I bet you were only using me, weren't you?! I was never your friend, wasn't I?! You're filthy! Scum!! Your whole family's **messed up**! I'll **never **forgive you!! We're enemies from now on!! I can't believe I ever befriended with such a bastard of a person! I'll get my revenge so don't you **ever **act like you're my friend again! How dare you?! **HOW DARE YOU?!**"_

Sweat drenched, I awoke with a start.

_It was only a dream, only a dream. . ._

My heart was still pounding rapidly.

It was still dark outside.

I got out of bed.

_It was only a dream, just a dream, never happened. . ._

I stepped out of my room in a daze.

_The bastard's still your friend, he never said those things, it was only a dream. . ._

I walked into the kitchen as I poured myself a glass of water, hands trembling.

_Just a dream, calm down, no need to panic. . ._

I was in such a daze and my hands were trembling so much and I was still such a nervous wreck that the water spilled over the cup's edge. I quickly placed down the pitcher and chugged the whole cup down as I sighed and leaned against the fridge and sat down as I continued to reassure and calm myself down.

"_Damn it_," I finally mumbled after I calmed myself down a little.

It had been a while since I had that dream and I thought I had finally gotten over it. I thought that the guilt may have finally slipped away and I thought that perhaps the dream wouldn't be returning anymore. I even _forgot _about the dream until tonight.

I buried my face in my hands and breathed heavily.

_How the hell am I going to live with this? _

–

The next afternoon, I trudged my feet to the cafe where we were all supposed to be gathering. I wasn't exactly in the mood to be yapping with my friends and such but I also wasn't in the mood to be locked up in my room, brooding. Hopefully, talking and being with them would take my mind off of _it. _

I soon reached it and found everyone already there – as always since I was always last. . .and _late._

The unusual thing was that no one instantly began complaining to me that I was late. In fact, everyone seemed to be staring at one direction.

I diverted my eyes to where they were looking and saw Sakura standing up with an extremely pale looking guy next to her. He was a few inches taller than her with the darkest black hair and the darkest eyes in contrast of his skin color.

I walked over to their table and stood next to the pale guy.

"Who are you?" I questioned bluntly.

Everyone turned to me.

"_Naruto_!" Ino hissed as she glared at me.

I shrugged. Everyone ought to know by now that it was my nature to be blunt and perhaps even a little rude. . .okay _really _rude, sometimes.

"Oh, it's you," Sakura said as she gazed at me. Her gaze seemed a little sad and maybe even disappointed. Did she not want me to be here or something?

"Well, um, this is my boyfriend," She said a little awkwardly, clearing her throat. "Sai, Naruto, Naruto, Sai."

My eyes widened a little.

_Sai. _The guy from the letter!

I tried hard to keep from frowning. I had forgotten about that letter in her drawer. . .and I was right. . .she _did _have a boyfriend. I didn't understand why that disappointed me so much though.

He smiled at me – a fake smile.

"Nice to meet you, Naruto-kun."

I fake smiled back. "I don't know if I feel the same way."

I instantly felt a smack across my head as I knowingly assumed it was probably either Sakura or Ino – more likely Sakura though.

"_Naruto_!" Sakura hissed as she withdrew her hand – I was right.

She quickly turned back to Sai, and smiled a little nervously at him. "Don't worry about Naruto, it's his nature to be rude. That's just his way of saying 'nice to meet you too.'" She shot me a quick glare and then turned back to the group. I did too.

Ino was batting her eyes flirtatiously at Sai – I thought she had her eyes on Sasuke? - Hinata was studying him, Shikamaru was yawning and looking like he could use a nap, and Sasuke just stared blankly.

"Ino, cut out that face," Sakura teasingly exclaimed. "Sai's _mine_, remember? And besides, I thought you were into Sasuke-kun!" At this, Sasuke shot a quick glare at Sakura that clearly said, 'thanks-a-lot.'

Ino pouted and blushed.

"What're you talking about, Sakura?! I was just _looking _athim, and of course I still love _my _Sasuke-kun!" She defended as she quickly linked arms with a very unwilling Sasuke.

He sighed exasperatedly.

Sai chuckled.

"You have very _interesting _new friends, I can tell you that," He mused.

_You don't seem interested, _I thought as I scowled a little at him. I was in a sour mood for some reason and I felt like heading back home, sort of. I decided that it was because of the dream I had last night.

Sakura giggled. "I guess you can say that."

"So Sai, how long are you staying here?" Ino asked as Sakura and Sai took a seat with them at the table. (I remained standing up. I didn't feel like sitting down for some reason. I felt too. . ._bitter _to.)

"The rest of spring break. I want to spend as much time as I can with Sakura," Sai said, smiling.

I pretended to silently gag. Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata caught me doing this. Sasuke stared, slightly amused, Sakura gave me a death glare, and Hinata blushed – which was what she always did anyways.

"Ohh, I wish you can stay a bit longer," Ino pouted as she batted her eyes at him.

He smiled a little in response.

"_So_," I said, making everyone else remember that I was still here. "What's the plan today?"

Everyone exchanged looks.

"How about we just sleep for once?" Shikamaru murmured.

I chuckled as most of my friends rolled their eyes.

"How about we just do something light today since we're all still kind of tired since yesterday," Ino suggested.

We all exchanged looks again with approving nods.

We soon decided to hit the mall and catch a movie or something.

–

The entire ride on the bus to the mall, I couldn't stop staring at Sakura and Sai who were standing up since it was so crowded and they were close together, whispering and laughing.

I scowled bitterly. I felt like I wanted to punch that Sai guy in the eye.

"What're you doing, dobe?"

The sudden question and voice so close startled me as I jumped a little and quickly turned to see Sasuke who was standing next to me, but not even glancing at me. He was reading a book – as always.

I blushed. "W-what do you mean?!"

"Staring at Sakura and Sai like that. . .you were practically glaring, that is."

I scowled at him. "Was not!"

"Don't argue so childishly like that. I know you well enough. You're _jealous_."

My eyes widened. "Say _what?!_"

"You heard me. You're jealous."

I snorted. "Oh _sure._ And jealous of what exactly?"

I was almost afraid of the answer.

"You know the answer to that," He replied as he finally glanced up at me and softly pushed my head with his fist. "You're jealous of Sai. You're so _in love _with Sakura, it makes me sickjust watching you stare at her and glare at him."

–

**Sakura.**

"I feel like Ino's moving onto you," I finally said as the bus continued on its way and people continued to cram against each other in the already way too crowded bus.

Sai raised an eyebrow at me.

"Well you can't deny the fact that I _do _allure many women," He joked.

I pushed him lightly and chuckled. "Gah, you're getting more and more pig-headed by the day!"

We both laughed.

"Well, on a more serious note, if she is, then you know that she won't be able to steal me from you." He turned to me. "I love you more than anything and anyone else, and nothing can change that," He whispered.

I blushed as I leaned my head against his shoulder.

"_I know._"

–

**Naruto.**

I could feel my face heating up. "_What_?! That has _got _to be the _dumbest _thing you've ever said!" I cried. "And here I thought you were actually pretty _smart_. Tsk, tsk." I shook my head.

He glared at me. "Stop lying, dobe," He growled. "I know that you're sickly in love with her."

I didn't reply this time. I just kept quiet. What did that bastard know anyways? He didn't know anything about love or all that crap.

Besides, what kind of an idiot like me would actually love someone? And what kind of an idiot would love me?

I shook my head. Sasuke was just trying to play with my mind.

–

**Sakura.**

The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. We caught a movie – which was pretty boring, but at least Sai was with me! - went shopping a little (the guys and girls kind of separated though. The guys went over to the food court to just "chill" and grab something to eat as we went to a few accessory and clothes stores.)

We finally met up though after two hours.

"Took you long enough," Shikamaru grumbled through his teeth which were clenching onto the straw of his soda.

"Girls need their shopping done, okay?" Ino said with a sigh.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Naruto waved off.

"_So, _did you guys bond?" I asked, eyeing Sai.

He smiled sweetly back. "Yes."

Naruto snorted. "You wish."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You know Naruto isn't capable of talking like a civilized person."

Shikamaru just. . .yawned.

The girls and I exchanged looks and we sighed.

What did I expect from Naruto, anyways?

Ino twisted a strand of hair with her index finger. "Well Sai, you and I can bond a little. How about we both go get some smoothies?"

He turned blankly towards her. "Okay."

She beamed as she quickly grabbed his arm and led him out of the food court. (There was a smoothie stand outside of the food court.)

I frowned a little, at unease. _Ino wouldn't try and steal my boyfriend. . .would she? _

Hinata placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Give Ino-chan a little trust," Hinata said with a smile as if she read my thoughts. "She may flirt with every, um, 'cute' guy, but her heart is always with Sasuke-san."

"Thanks Hinata," I said as I grinned at her appreciatively.

She was right. Ino was one of my best friends, and Sai was my boyfriend. She'd never do something like that. It was just Ino's nature to flirt.

_Right?_

* * *

**A/N: Updated faster than I expected. ****  
**

**Sai is OOC.  
**

**Deal with it. **


	9. It's NOT a Date

**Chapter Nine**

**Sakura.**

I slowly opened my eyes as I heard a some rustling. I turned to see Sai, who was standing up, already dressed, reading something on his phone – probably a text message or something.

"Sai?" I mumbled as I slowly sat up.

He quickly turned to me and smiled as he placed his phone into his pocket.

"Sakura, I didn't mean to wake you, sorry."

"No, you didn't wake me. . ." I said with a yawn. I studied him for a moment. "Are you going somewhere?"

He smiled. "Yeah, Ino text messaged me, asking if I would like to go somewhere with her."

I frowned. "Like a. . .date?"

"No, no!" He quickly cried. "Just as _friends. _You know, I'd like to get to know your friends better."

"So. . .why only the two of you? Why not with Hinata, Shikamaru, Naruto, and Sasuke-kun too?"

"Sakura, you're too paranoid. . ."

_Why won't you answer my question?_

He stepped over to me and brushed my hair back a little as he gazed at me. He then leaned over and gave me a quick kiss then whispered, "I'll be back as soon as I can and then, the two of us can go on a date."

I wondered why I couldn't tag along.

And with that, he left.

–

**Naruto.**

I stretched and yawned as I walked along the crowded sidewalk. I was pondering on which ramen I would get this time as I headed towards my favorite ramen stand, Ichiraku Ramen.

_Should I get beef this time. . .or the one that I always get? Should I try something new? Should I try the mystery flavor? _

"Hmm. . ." I pondered as I scratched the back of my head as I drew nearer to the stand. I was almost there without a final choice in my head.

I finally shrugged as I stepped inside the stand. I decided I'd ask for a recommendation from the owner.

But my thoughts on ramen disappeared as I saw a girl who had long blond hair tied back in a ponytail and ocean blue eyes with an extremely pale guy who had dark eyes and dark hair.

"E-eh? Ino? _Sai_?"

They stiffened at the sound of their names and my voice as they slowly turned to me.

"N-Naruto!" Ino cried, a panicky smile spreading across her face. "W-what're you doing here?"

I frowned. "You know that I come here often."

She muttered something under her breath.

Sai pleasantly fake smiled at me.

"Well, it's nice to see you again, Naruto-kun," He said.

I snorted as I took a seat next to him.

"You don't happen to be cheating on Sakura, are you?" I growled, scowling at him.

"Cheating? Ino and I aren't on a date."

"Just the two of you alone, in Ichiraku Ramen, your heads were extremely close together too. It seems like a date to me."

"Don't be ridiculous, Naruto," Ino snapped. "Sai and I are just _friends_."

Sai shrugged. "She's right."

I glared at Sai in the eye. "If you even try and cheat on Sakura behind her back, I seriously won't hesitate to _murder _you!"

He remained smiling pleasantly. He didn't flinch, wince, or take a step back in fear. He actually seemed overall, _amused._

"Well, you certainly seem protective over Sakura," Sai mused.

My eyes widened a little then I went back to glaring at him.

"Well – well, she's my friend," I growled.

He nodded knowingly but I could tell that he was amused by something that he wasn't telling me – I felt a little self conscious then, as if I was being laughed at or something.

"What's so funny, eh?" I asked.

"Nothing," He responded simply in a singsong voice.

I was seriously starting to get pissed off at the guy.

I saw that Ino was getting annoyed too, but at me. She probably wished I'd disappear from their sights.

I slowly grinned hugely as an idea crept into my mind.

"_Well, _if you two aren't on a date. . ." I began, grinning mischievously. "Then, I guess it wouldn't hurt if I tag along, eh? I mean, _come on_, we're all friends, right?"

I could see the horrified look on Ino's face that clearly said, 'I'll-get-you-for-this!' and the pleasant smile on Sai's face.

"Of course, Naruto-kun. Besides, as they say, the more, the merrier," He replied.

_SNAP!_

Sai and I instantly turned to see that Ino had broken a chopstick.

She blushed and smiled sweetly at Sai. "Ahahaha. . .oops?"

Then she turned and shot a furious glare at me before turning back to her ramen.

–

"Sai, how about we go and catch a movie?" Ino asked.

We finished eating at Ichiraku Ramen and now we were just strolling along the sidewalk. The warm air felt great especially after enduring the cold winter for so long. It was nice to finally feel spring coming up.

I couldn't let them just forget about me.

"Depends on the movie," I said.

She glared at me as she gritted her teeth. "_Naruto_, can I talk to you for a second?"

"We _are _talking."

"Don't you smart-mouth me! Come on," Ino said exasperatedly as she grabbed my hand. She then turned back towards Sai and smiled sweetly. "We'll be back soon!"

She led me a bit far away from Sai so that he was out of ears length.

"Naruto, what are you doing?!" She hissed.

"I'm tagging along with you guys."

"And exactly _why _are you doing that?!"

"Hey, it's not like you two are on a _date_, or something, is it? So if it's not a _date_, I can tag along, right? Or. . .are you saying that this _is _a date and you're making Sai, your _best friend's boyfriend_, cheat on Sakura, your _best friend_?" I asked, fighting back a mischievous smile.

Ino pursed her lips. "I wouldn't steal Sakura's boyfriend, how many times do I have to tell you that?! Sai and I are just _friends_."

"Oh yeah? _Prove it._"

"What're you talking about, knucklehead?!"

"Oh _nothing_," I said as I waved it off.

"You - !" Ino threatened as she clenched her fists, ready to punch me probably.

"Is everything alright?"

We both turned to see Sai who had walked towards us, probably because we were taking a while.

Ino instantly unclenched her fists as a sweet, innocent smile spread across her face.

"Of course, Sai! Why _wouldn't _anythingbe okay?!" She smiled. "Now, um, can you give us a moment? We'll be right there."

"Oh sure, I'll just go get a drink or something," He replied as he went on his way.

Her face instantly turned into a nasty glare as she shot it at me.

"_Anyways_, I'll give you five bucks if you leave right now."

I snorted. "No way. No matter how much money you say you'll give me, I'm not leaving. You can't make me! Besides, from the way you're acting, I can tell that you've got the hots for Sai and you're not willing to let him go for Sakura. Well, since that's the story, I guess I'll have no choice but to tell Sakura that Ino, her _best friend_, is planning to steal her boy - "

"Oh _shut up_! Will you stop saying that I'm into Sai?! I'm not! Damn it, what the hell's wrong with you, Uzumaki?! What do you know about loving someone, anyways?! You've never been in love!"

I smiled a little. That was true. I've never been in love. . .I think.

But right when I said that, Sakura's face flashed through my mind.

The moment when our faces were just centimeters apart, when I almost _kissed _her.

I glanced down. _If I did kiss her. . .I wonder how she would've reacted.. . ._

_Probably punch me in the face and never speak to me again._

I sighed, relieved. I was glad that I didn't kiss her.

Ino sighed too. "Okay fine, you can stay. Just don't be so annoying."

I grinned.

And with that, we were on our way.

–

**Sakura.**

_Should I call him?_

_No, he'll think I'm too obsessed with him.._

_But you are!_

_Oh shut up._

_I wonder what he's doing. . ._

My grip on my glass of water tightened.

_He'd better not be cheating on me behind my back! **Shannaro! **_

I shook my head.

_Sakura, you're ridiculous. . .why would Sai ever cheat on you? You know what? Sai's right. You're too paranoid and overprotective. He's just going out with a friend. . .just as friends. Nothing more. Besides, Ino just likes making new friends and such, right? She doesn't have the hots for Sai. _

I chuckled.

_Just calm down. . .remember he said he'll come back for a date with you? Just wait for that to happen. . ._

I glanced at the clock and frowned a little.

It was nine o'clock at night.

_What's taking him so long then. . ._

_I already had to eat dinner too. . ._

_He wouldn't have forgotten about our date, would he?_

_No, no . .we're probably going to have a late date or something – he's probably planning to take me somewhere that would only look beautiful at night._

I smiled as I continued to reassure myself.

_Yeah, that's right. . ._

–

It was soon midnight, and he still didn't come home.

I was starting to get extremely restless so I finally reached for my phone and called him.

_Ring...ring...ring...ring..._

I waited and sighed as I tapped my fingers impatiently on my desk.

_Ring...ring--_

"Hello?"

I jumped a little at the sound of his voice.

"S-Sai!"

"Sakura! Oh my God, Sakura! I-I'm _so, so, so _sorry! I – I totally forgot about our date and everything – and I know I'm late and - "

"Shh, it's okay, it's okay."

"Oh Sakura, I'm _terribly _sorry. . .I really am. I guess it just slipped my mind. . .I – I'll make it up to you tomorrow, how about that?"

I smiled a little. "Um. . .sure. . .and you don't have to apologize so much, jeez. It's fine. Everyone makes mistakes and forgets things."

He chuckled. "You were always so forgiving. . ."

"Eheh. . .anyways. . .what're you doing right now? It's so late. . ."

"Oh I'm actually just strolling along the beach with Ino. Oh and Naruto-kun's here too."

My ears perked up. "Naruto? He came along too?"

"Uh huh. We bumped into him at Ichiraku Ramen."

"O-oh. . ."

"It would've been funner with you here. . ."

"Psh, liar."

"It's true!"

"Yeah, yeah. . ."

Pause.

"So. . .when are you coming home?"

"Why? Miss me?"

"Too much."

"I miss you too. . .I'll be back soon, okay?"

"Okay."

"Heh, Sakura. . ."

"What?"

"We sound like a married couple. . ."

I blushed, and was glad that he wouldn't be able to see that. "S-shut up."

He laughed.

"Well, I'll see you later, then. I love you," He said.

"Love you too."

And with that, we hung up.

I went to bed, feeling a little better as my clouded suspicions and worries slowly faded away.

–

_It was dark and I couldn't see anything or anyone. I didn't even know where I was._

_But then, I saw Sai. He was standing in front of me, except further away. His back was turned to me so I couldn't see his face._

_I smiled as I tried to step over to him but my feet wouldn't budge. Startled, I tried again, but my feet remained glued to the ground. I frustratiedly tried and tried to make my feet budge, move! But it wouldn't. My feet stubbornly stayed to the floor._

_I desperately glanced up at Sai who was still standing like that._

"_Sai!" I called out. "Help me."_

_He didn't budge for moment but after a moment's hesitation, he slowly turned to me, his face a little solemn._

"_Did you not hear me? Help me," I repeated._

_He didn't move at all. He just stared at me with those dark, blank eyes. _

"_I'm sorry, Sakura. . ."_

_And with that, he began disappearing._

_My eyes widened. "No! Don't leave me here!" _

_I tried to run after him, but my feet wouldn't move._

_I cried as I realized that I was trapped. . ._


	10. Bluntly Put, it's None of Your Business

**A/N: e.o Don't worry, the next chapter (this chapter) was going to be narusaku-filled anyways.  
**

**

* * *

  
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**Chapter Ten**

**Sakura.**

Bored, I trudged my feet along the sidewalk. The warm breeze felt light and cherry blossoms were blooming in a few trees. I glanced up at the cherry blossom trees.

_They're so beautiful. _

The tiny petals of the pink flowers gracefully fell to the ground.

_And they only bloom during spring._

_The best season of all._

I sighed. Too bad that spring was a very short season.

I closed my eyes as I stopped walking and touched the tree trunk of a cherry blossom tree.

A few days had passed since Sai arrived and ever since then, he spent most of his time being out, being. . . who-knows-where? And so far, we've only been on one date. And on that date, he seemed very. . ._distracted. _He definitely wasn't enjoying himself and his mind seemed to keep wandering away. I tried to start conversations with him but he simply replied in no more than three words. It was like talking to a wall, basically. He'd never been that way before. He was always so enthusiastic on our previous dates, and _he_ was usually the one starting conversations. _He_ was usually the one to take the initiative.

I sighed.

_Does it have something to do with Ino?_

"Sakura?"

My eyes fluttered open and my heart skipped a beat as my thoughts were interrupted by an awfully familiar voice. I turned and saw the blond knucklehead. His cerulean blue eyes were widened and his eyebrow was raised.

"Are you like. . .trying to communicate with the tree or something?"

I twitched.

"_Idiot_!"

_BONK!_

"_Ow_!"

–

**Naruto.**

"Ugh, you didn't have to _hit _me. . ." I grumbled as I rubbed the back of my head.

"Pfft," She humphed as she crossed her arms across her chest and turned her head away from me very childishly. "I wouldn't have had to hit you if you didn't say something so _stupid._"

I couldn't help but grin a little.

We continued walking along under the cherry blossom trees.

_What's with me and bumping into people these days?_

But my idiotic thought was interrupted as I saw an ice cream stand.

I turned to the still-ticked-off Sakura.

"Hey, let's get ice cream," I suggested.

"I don't want any," She replied stubbornly.

I shrugged. "Suit yourself."

I walked over to the stand and got a triple scoop of cookies n' cream sprinkled with chocolate cocoas with a dash of raspberries and bananas.

I returned to her, licking my ice cream.

"_Mmm_," I said playfully, trying to make her jealous. "The _creaminess, _it's _so _good. It just _melts in_ - "

"Oh shut up," She interrupted, but then she giggled.

I smiled as we continued walking along.

Her long pink hair hung over her shoulders like a curtain and her jade eyes seemed to sparkle a little more than before. Before, when she slowly turned to me, her eyes were dull and sad. Now, they seemed lively and excited.

I turned away from her.

_Why is she here alone? Where's Sai?_

I glanced down at my ice cream that didn't seem so appetizing anymore.

_Probably. . .with Ino?_

_Damn, that Ino. . ._

A few days ago when I bumped into Sai and Ino at Ichiraku Ramen, Ino shot me so many glares all day that I _almost _ditched them. But I didn't. The reason I tagged along was simple – just to annoy them. And also, I wanted to see how close they've gotten and they've gotten pretty close.

The two of them were constantly laughing and whispering – it was almost kind of... _sweet. _And believe me, it's not everyday when I say that a romantic scene is sweet. Usually, I call it cheesy or cliché.

I turned back to Sakura.

I wondered how she'd feel if she knew about that. . .about how. . ._happy _he looked when he was with Ino. Sure, he looked happy when he was with Sakura too, but his eyes actually sparkled when he was with Ino. He was livelier, happier, more energetic...

"Um. . ."

I turned to see Sakura who was eyeing my ice cream.

She blushed a little and pointed at my ice cream. "Is it. . .is it good?"

I smirked. "Why? Do you _want _some of this creamy goodness?"

She blushed even more as she glared at me. "_NO_! I was just asking... you know what? Forget it."

Then, she quickly turned away.

I chuckled as I pushed my ice cream right under her nose.

"Try some," I offered.

She pushed my arm away. "No, I don't want any."

"Damn, you're stubborn. You _know _you want it."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do no - "

But I interrupted her by popping a small piece of a banana dipped in ice cream in her mouth while it was open.

She swallowed the piece then scowled. "I said I didn't want any. . ."

I shrugged and grinned at her.

I decided that today, I'd cheer her up. After all, if Ino thinks she could steal Sai, then, I could probably steal Saku -

_Wait a minute, what am I thinking?! _

"Naruto," She suddenly said. Her eyes hard as she glanced up at me.

"What?" I asked as I finished up my second scoop of my ice cream.

"Take me somewhere."

I raised an eyebrow. It was a command, but her voice made it sound like she was begging. Begging me to take her anywhere. It was as if she was begging me to make her stop thinking about... _him. _I could tell that she was hurting and that she wanted to just forget him for a while.

I gazed at her sad, longing face. "_As you wish."_

–

"You took me_ here_?" She asked as she opened my coke can.

We were on the school rooftop, and soon the sun would be setting.

I shrugged as I chugged down my coke can. I almost coughed from chugging it down too much. "Is there something wrong with that? I thought you loved sunsets and sunrises... _and _the school rooftop."

"I do. I was just _asking_," She quickly replied as she sipped her coke.

We were silent for a moment as we just both gazed into the scenery.

"Naruto. . ." She softly said.

I turned to her. "What now?"

I tried to act as if I was annoyed and uninterested in whatever she had to say, but the truth was, I was drinking in her every word. I wanted to know every little thing she had to say no matter how unimportant it was.

"What's your dream?" She asked.

My heart skipped a beat. "Eh? Dream?"

"Yeah...like what do you want to do when you grow up."

Pause.

"I don't know. . ." I lied.

The truth was, I had a dream. . .but the dream was so impossible. . .and she wouldn't understand, also, if I told her my dream, I'd have to tell her about my family, my dad. . .

"You're hiding something," She pointed out.

I stopped myself from looking surprised. How did she know? Was I that easy to read?

"I'm not hiding anything," I lied again.

She leaned over to me.

"Li-_ar_," She teased as she flicked my forehead.

I winced as I rubbed my forehead.

"Tell me your dream," She pressed.

I looked away. "You'd laugh."

She raised an eyebrow. "Nuh uh."

I glanced back at her.

Pause.

"Tell me your dream first," I said even though I already knew it.

She sighed as she rolled her eyes. "_Fine._ I want to be a doctor when I grow up – a really good doctor so that I could help people. . .I always wanted to help people. . .and anyways you already knew that. Remember I told you when you were um – well. . .when I took you in when you were badly injured?" She asked. "Speaking of that, why _were_ you so badly injured?"

I rolled my eyes. "You're nosy."

"Mm. . .I like to know about my friends, you know. And you. . ." She looked at me in the eye. "I hardly know anything about you except that you're a knucklehead, dumbass, do reckless crap, and has an average of a F-."

I chuckled. "That's enough to know about me."

She shook her head. "No it's not.. why won't you tell me anything?"

I chugged down some more coke.

"Sakura, it's not important. . ." I mumbled.

I haven't told a single soul about my whole past or my dream. No one asked me anyways. The only one who knew most about me was Sasuke and even he didn't know _everything. _All my life, I'd always been secretive about myself. I always wore this fake smile, fake laugh when inside, I was dying. After my parents passed away, I didn't receive any attention whatsoever from anyone except Sasuke. And Sasuke. . .well, he's not the type to care or give attention to someone heartily. He always cared for people in his own secret way. That's when I began to pull pranks, make loud mouthed jokes to receive attention even though the attention wasn't. . ._good _attention.

She finally gave up after that and we fell into another silence.

The sun set and darkness was soon taking over the sky, soaking everything in a lighter navy blue color.

I yawned as I stretched.

"We should get going... besides, I'm hungry," I said as I headed towards the door.

"Me too, let's go get something to eat!" She said eagerly as she followed after.

"Ramen."

"Whatever. Anything's fine."

I placed my hand on the knob of the door and tried to turn it.

A slight pang of panic shot through me though when the knob wouldn't turn.

Panicking, I tried to turn the knob again and again, but it wouldn't budge.

"It's. . .it's. . .locked. . ." I said hoarsely.

Pause.

"_What_?!"

* * *

**A/N: Where am I going with this? You'll see :P **


	11. Like Some Cheesy Movie

**Chapter Eleven**

**Sakura.**

"You're kidding!" I wailed as I stared at him, waiting for him to break into a smile, swing open the door and say, 'I got'cha, didn't I?' But he didn't. He just stared, wide-eyed, at the door, his hand still frozen on the knob.

Impatiently, I shoved him over as I tried to open up the door, myself. Sure enough, it was locked. It wouldn't budge open an inch.

"Oh – oh my God!" I panicked. "Now what?! I don't want to spend the night.. _here_!"

_Aren't these sort of situations only supposed to happen in movies?!_

"We're not! Do you have your phone?!"

I beamed. "You're right! I do! I'd never thought I'd say this, but you're a _genius_!" I excitedly jammed my hand into my pocket and took our my phone which was off. I turned it on, only to find that my cellphone... was out of batteries. It instantly turned off as it gave me the: "no more batteries" sign.

"_No_! Don't do this to me, cellphone!" I wailed. "It's out of batteries! ...Do you have your cellphone?"

"I don't _have _a cellphone, damn it!"

"_Augh_! Now what?!"

Pause.

I soon started pounding my fists on the door desperately. "_Open up_! _Open up_! There's still people on the rooftop, damn it! _Open up_!!" It was immature and idiotic but, but I was _desperate. _

He followed me and soon we were screaming and kicking and pounding on the door, begging for anyone to come and _save us. _

"_Is anyone there_?! Is anyone out there?!?" I yelled.

_Pound! Pound! _

"Let us out!! People are still _in _here, you know!!" He shouted.

_Thump! Thump! _

_Kick! Kick!_

_Pound!_

After a while of useless and hopeless kicking and pounding and screaming, we both gave up as we both trudged our feet to the edge of the rooftop, our throats burning and hoarse from all the yelling, begging for water. Unfortunately, we had no water supplied with us and we already finished our only source of drinks a while ago – which were our coke.

"I can't _believe _this!" I wailed. "Don't tell me we got to spend the night here and wait the next morning until someone comes and unlocks the door! Please tell there's a Plan B!"

"You can jump off and die," He suggested sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"_Shut up_!" I growled as I kicked his shins. "Be more serious here, please!"

"Ugh... " He winced as he rubbed his shin. "Did anyone ever tell you that you had _monstrous _strength? 'Cause you do and when you hit or kick someone, it hurts like _hell._"

"_Shut it,_" I growled.

Silence fell upon us as I grew calmer and calmer.

Even though it was spring, the air was starting to chill as the evening grew darker.

I suddenly heard a loud stomach growl.

I turned to Naruto in surprise who was clutching his stomach and groaning about how hungry he was.

Now that I thought about it, I was pretty hungry too.

The thing was, we had no food.

–

**Naruto.**

"_Ah, _I'm _hungry_!" I whined as my stomach pleaded for some food.

A pair of emerald eyes shot a quick glare at me. "_Shut up_."

She sat down, leaning against the wall and brought her knees up to her chest as she hugged herself and shuddered a little. She looked cold.

It _was _ pretty chilly considering that spring had only just arrived and winter was only starting to depart so during the nights, it wasstill pretty chilly.

I groaned. _I can't believe I'm doing this... it's so cheesy but hell, I'm not even cold... that's right, I'm doing this because I'm not cold at all and my sweater's only serving me as a nuisance._

After assuring myself that this of course not at all for Sakura, I took off my hoodie and wrapped it around her shoulders.

Her head snapped up as she glanced at me then quickly started taking off the hoodie.

"Leave it on. You look cold," I muttered.

"I'm _not _cold!" She snapped stubbornly. "Besides, I don't want to wear your stupid sweater."

"Don't be dumb. You're _shivering_. And besides, I'm not even cold."

She didn't say anything and this time. She kept the hoodie on obediently for once.

My stomach growled hungrily as I sat down next to her.

Night was falling pretty fast.

I glanced at my watch. It read 8:50 pm.

_No wonder I'm so hungry._

"...Hey, forehead," I said, my voice slightly hoarse.

She didn't bother to even glance at me. "What?"

"Let's play a game.."

She stiffened as she shifted her eyes at me. "_What _game? And how can you think of playing a game at a time like this?"

I shrugged. "It's to keep our minds off hunger and the cold. Okay now.. do you know how to play Poker? ERS? Spoons? BS?" I asked as I took out my deck of cards from my pocket.

She raised an eyebrow. "You keep a deck of cards in your pocket?"

"Eh," I said as I pulled the rubber band off the deck of cards. "Just for emergency issues... in case I'm with someone and fall terribly bored... or become trapped on the school rooftop like this."

She giggled, starting to loosen up. "You carry a deck of cards for _emergency issues_? You should carry around food and water and a blanket for _'emergency issues' _like these."

"True. But hell, that's too much to carry. Anyways, answer my question already. What card games do you know?"

She smiled. "I know how to play all... _and _Goldfish."

I snorted. "Goldfish is for little babies. _Everyone _knows how to play that. Let's play BS then since it's a pretty long game."

The night and school rooftop were filled with our shouts, laughter, and arguments as our game proceeded. Nevertheless, it was actually a pretty interesting and fun experience especially since we both kept accusing each other of lying by screaming out, "_BS_!" at each other and then argued that we didn't actually _mean _ to say BS when the other wasn't lying. Or that we didn't even say it.. and that the other person heard wrongly.

A few hours rolled by, and our game _finally _finished. (She won. Though, I swear she cheated like ten times. She claimed that she would never do such a thing. Yeah right.)

We were lying on the school rooftop on our backs, gazing at the sky.

There were hardly any stars since they were all blocked from all the lights from Konoha but nevertheless, it was still beautiful.

"Sakura.. " I said aloud unconsciously. I quickly slapped my hand over my mouth once her name slipped from my lips.

_Shit, _I thought as my eyes slowly shifted to her.

But I found that she was sleeping already on her side, facing towards me.

I turned to my side too as I gazed at her.

She was breathing softly and her hair was a mess. Her long pink hair was tangled and draped like a curtain over her shoulder.

_She's still beautiful._

Her cheeks and nose were rosy.. she was still probably cold. But there was nothing else I could take off of myself for her warmth.. (If I took off my shirt, she'd scream and call me a pervert or something worse and if I took off my _pants_...all Hell would be loose.)

I was tempted to reach out and stroke her face but I quickly bit back the temptation as I glanced away.

My heart beat quickly.

_This is impossible. I can't be... possibly...** falling** for her... I'm not the type to fall in love. I swore to myself that an idiot like me would never – no scratch that, **should never **fall in love. And besides... she has a boyfriend, already! A boyfriend..._

I gritted my teeth frustratedly.

_A boyfriend who's starting to love someone else... when she loves him... so much._

The thought of it _hurt. _

My eyes shifted back to her, and traveled down to her lips, her glossy lips that were tempting me, _daring _me to kiss them.

I quickly looked away again before my temptation was too strong.

_This isn't real... it can't be. Besides, I've only known her for.. what? A few months? A few months of just knowing her can't change anything. It's just a stupid crush... maybe._

I swallowed.

_But Sai and Ino... they've only known each other for a few days, and yet – yet, I can already sense that they've got a thing for each other._ _And besides.. this... this doesn't feel like a crush.._

I knew because I've had at least three crushes in the past. It wasn't many since I was never too into love and all that crap but I _did _ have at least three crushes. And the 'love' I had for them quickly went away.

_This feels... **stronger **than a crush. _

I sighed.

_Besides... she'd never fall for me... an idiot like me. That's __**impossible**_**. **_She's too... __**good **__for me. _

And secretly, I actually enjoyed being stuck on the rooftop with her...

–

**Sakura.**

My back ached as my eyes slowly fluttered open.

I could see the sun and the sky (what the hell?! What happened to my roof?!) and my back was aching like hell and this bed – why was the bed so _hard_?!

Then I remembered. It all came back to me like a flash as I remembered that I was stuck on the school rooftop. _Oh joy. _

Groaning a bit, I sat up as I massaged my aching back.

I looked around and saw Naruto still sleeping next to me. He was sprawled out, his mouth hanging wide open and drool drizzling down from his mouth.

I snorted as I got up and walked towards the door, testing to see if it was unlocked now.

It opened!

Excitedly, I shouted with joy as I quickly ran back towards him and shook him awake.

"Naruto, Naruto, wake up! The door's open! We can go now, we can – "

But suddenly he pulled my wrist and pulled me in. I soon found myself on top of him as he wrapped his arms around me.

"Just... a little bit longer..." He mumbled, his eyes still closed.

Pause.

I twitched as I felt my face heating up.

_What the **HELL **is he doing?!_

"_Naruto... " _I said steadily, my voice shaking with anger. "_If you don't let go RIGHT NOW, I swear I'll – " _

"_AH_!" He suddenly screamed as his cerulean eyes shot open and he quickly let go of me, _pushing _me away from him.

I staggered back as he quickly got up to his feet.

"S-s-sorry!" He stammered, not daring to face me. "IwasjustdreamingandIdidn'trealizewhatIwasdoingand- and... yeah.." He said all way too quickly.

I flinched as I brushed myself and sniffled.

"Whatever," I mumbled as I combed my hair with my fingers. "Anyways, the door open! Let's go already, let's go!"

He turned to me, his face a little red. "What?! Really? _Alright_!"

And then, we charged through the door and flew down the stairs, racing neck to neck.

My heart thumped loudly as we finally reached the bottom and pushed open the door of the school.

"_YES_!" I cheered as I punched my fist into the air.

We both jumped up and down and cheered for a bit like little kids and after we finally calmed down and settled down, we headed towards a restaurant to eat. (I skipped literally.)

We laughed, and joked along the way, feeling good.

Ever since I saw Naruto the day before at the cherry blossom tree, I laughed and felt better than I had for the past few days.

I frowned. The past few days when Sai was out _somewhere_ all the time.

I shook my head, I didn't want to think about Sai right now.

So I quickly glanced back at Naruto, smiling, but then saw that he suddenly stopped at his tracks. His expression was mixed with horror, confusion, and disbelief as he stared at something in the distance.

Frowning a little, I matched up with his gaze.

My heart stopped for a moment.

He was staring at two people... kissing.

One of them was a blond girl with a ponytail... the other was a pale guy with dark hair.

They had their arms wrapped around each other.

And they were kissing.

Kissing.

_Kissing._


	12. Beginnings and Endings

**Chapter Twelve**

**Naruto.**

"Sai?! _Ino_?!" I blurted out.

They tore apart from each other and glanced at us with horrified expressions.

And with that, Sakura ran passed me and passed them.

"_Sakura_!" I shouted as I reached out to grab her arm but I was too late. She was already out of reach and was running and weaving through the crowds, desperately just trying to get out of here. Desperately just trying to get away and be anywhere, anywhere but here.

I wanted to catch up to her and comfort her, but I walked over to Sai and punched him straight in the face.

"_Sai_!" Ino screeched. Then she turned to me, her eyes filled with plead – something I hadn't seen before from her. "Naruto, Naruto, _stop it. _It's all _my _fault. I _made _him kiss me!"

I ignored her as I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

Even though.. even though I knew that Sai and Ino were starting to fall for each other and even though I knew that they were probably always together and maybe even making out behind Sakura's back, it _hurt _to see her realize. It hurt to see her... being so _hurt. _It made me mad just thinking of Sai cheating on her.

"_Sai, _you little bastard!" I growled. "How could you do this to Sakura, huh?! You _came _ here to spend time with her and now look – you're spending 24/7 with _Ino _instead, now?!"

He didn't say anything. His expression was completely blank and he didn't flinch or wince once.

"_Say something, bastard_!" I shouted as I punched his face again.

"_Naruto_!" Ino screamed as she pushed me away.

"Leave me alone Ino! _You... how could you do this to Sakura_?!" I demanded, getting angrier and angrier by the moment.

Tears filled up her aqua eyes. "N-Naruto... I _know.. I know_! I didn't mean to – I mean, I couldn't help it.. I – I fell in love with Sai. At first, I was in denial. At first... " She was sobbing now, her face buried in her hands. "_I didn't want to do this to Sakura too, okay_?! I know that I'm not worthy of being her friend anymore... she probably hates me now and – and I guess I can't blame her... I – I..." Tears streamed down her face.

"_I love Sai too much to let him go_!" She screamed as more tears rolled down his cheeks.

I was shocked by all this. I had never.. ever seen her in so much despair.

I couldn't say anything. It was as if my voice got cut off.

"Naruto-kun..." Sai murmured as he stepped over to me. "Please don't blame it on Ino... it was my fault."

"Shut up, Sai," Ino sniffled. "How could you say it was _your _fault?! It was _my _fault! I obviously stole you from Sa - "

"_Shut up_!" I shouted.

They both turned to me.

"I... I..." I stammered. My head was spinning. I clutched my head with my hands. "I don't know what to do anymore."

And with that, I left them.

I left and ran, searching for Sakura.

_Sakura.. Sakura.. Sakura.._

My head was spinning as I desperately looked for her.

_Where the hell is she_?!

–

**Sakura.**

The numbness spread throughout my whole body.

_I'm so stupid._

_I should have known._

_I'm so naïve._

_Of course he'd be with Ino all this time._

_Of course.._

_From the way Ino glanced at Sai.._

_I should have known.._

_How much dumber can I get?_

I buried my face in my knees.

There was a sudden loud pound on the door.

"Sakura.."

It was Sai.

"Sakura, open up."

I flinched.

"Sakura, please.. can we talk this out?"

Silence.

"I'm leaving tomorrow.. and I don't want to leave without straightening things out."

What was there to straight out?

"Sakura, _please_ open the door. I – I'm not asking for forgiveness or anything. I just got to _talk _to you."

I stood up, and pulled his suitcase out as I threw all his clothes and belongings back into the suitcase and closed it.

I then opened the door, blankly staring at the very distressed looking Sai.

I pushed his suitcase over to him.

"Bye," I said as I slammed the door in his face.

And then, the tears started coming.

He started pounding on the door again.

"Sakura, don't do this.. please answer.. "

"Go. Away," I managed to choke out.

And there was silence.

–

**Naruto.**

I finally reached her apartment room as I pounded on the door.

"_Sakura_!" I cried panting as I continued to pound on her door. "Forehead! Pinky! Open up!"

Pause.

She opened the door a tad bit as her dull eyes glanced up at me.

She looked horrible.. she looked as if she was just a lifeless corpse.. she didn't look like she had any life in her.

Breathing heavily, I pulled her in and hugged her tightly.

"_Sakura... _" I murmured as I buried my face in her hair.

She didn't say anything. She didn't do anything. She just stood there, allowing me to hug her.

–

We were once again on the school rooftop.

Just me and her.

Just the two of us.

We had been sitting in silence for some time now.

_FLASHBACK_

"Naruto-kun!" Sai cried as I reached Sakura's apartment. He had his suitcase and backpack. He was obviously kicked out.

I didn't say anything. Instead, I pushed passed him.

"Wait Naruto-kun.." He murmured.

I turned to him.

"Can I.. can I speak to you for a second?"

"Why should I?" I almost snarled at him.

"Please.. it would only take a moment."

–

"Sakura.. Sakura won't hear me out," Sai murmured.

I didn't say anything. _Serves you right, _I thought.

"I think – I think she's hurting a lot right now. And.. I think you're the only that can heal her at the moment."

Pause.

"Why.. why did you kiss her?" I asked stupidly before I could stop myself.

He closed his eyes. "I don't know. For the passed few days, all I wanted to do was spend my time with Ino. At the beginning, when I first met her, I was convinced that she wouldn't be able to steal my heart since I thought that I was madly in love with Sakura. But.. I proved myself wrong the next day when I was with her and.. Ino.. I don't know, there's something about her that makes something in me click. It's as if.. _she's the right one._ I had never had that feeling with Sakura before.. of course, Sakura's an amazing girl.. but.. she – she's the not the one for me. And, I'm pretty sure that in time, she'll realize that too and she'll find a better person – a person that'll make her feel right."

Pause.

"I.. after a few days of just being with Ino, I fell madly in love with her. And I was so tempted to kiss her, but I knew that I had to be faithful. I was afraid to tell anyone my feelings, even Ino even though I was sure that she loved me too. I was sure that she was probably going through the same difficulty as I was. And I was sure that there was someone blocking her path too – Sakura. So I _tried _to keep a lid of these feelings, make them go away, but I _couldn't_. And.. I went on a date with Sakura a few days later, but my mind – it kept wandering back to Ino. Her face, her voice, her _touch.._ and I realized that I couldn't hide it anymore. So my temptation finally got the best of me and I just _kissed Ino_ and.. it felt so right."

Pause.

He glanced at me desperately. "Could you.. could you please just somehow convince Sakura to talk to me tomorrow before I leave? My flight leaves at two in the afternoon and I have to be at the airport by eleven, so it has to be quick.. tell her that I'm not trying to beg for forgiveness and that I just have to tell her something. I just have to tell her the whole story. Could you please do that for me?"

I hesitated then swallowed. "Alright.."

"Thank you.."

Pause.

"Naruto-kun," He called as I stood up to leave.

I turned to him.

"I – I love Sakura.. but I'm in love with Ino."

_END OF FLASHBACK._

I turned to Sakura who was gazing dully at the scenery. This wasn't the Sakura I knew. This new Sakura.. I didn't like it. She seemed so.. _dead. _I wanted to tease her, make her mad even and let her punch me just to know that she was alive and _there. _But I didn't 'cause I knew that it wasn't the time and that she would heal..

Fighting a grin, I also couldn't help but notice that she was still wearing my hoodie and it looked way too big on her. But she actually kind of looked.. _cute. _

Quickly pushing away the thought, I pondered whether or not I should tell her about Sai.. I finally decided that I'd tell her later..

I hesitantly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in.

Normally, this would be a huge risk of getting punched or yelled at by her, but I knew that right now she needed comfort and this wouldn't anger or offend her in any way right now.

She leaned her head against my shoulder and closed her eyes.

"_Naruto_.." She murmured. "_Thank you_.."

–

**Sakura.**

_I was sobbing, still trapped in the darkness, my feet still unmoving._

_No one was in sight._

_Suddenly, I saw a hand offering me to take it._

_Surprised, I glanced up to see who it was._

"_Naruto.." I gasped slightly as I saw the blond haired boy._

_And I took his hand._

_As soon as I did, I stood up and my feet were able to move now._

_He smiled at me as he didn't let go of my hand and led me out of the dark maze.._

–

I slowly opened my eyes as I allowed the sun rays to shoot glares at me.

Squinting, I got up, my vision slightly blurred. All the colors and lines were just mushed and mixed together so I rubbed my eyes, trying to wake myself up properly.

As soon as my vision cleared, I realized that I wasn't at home – I was in some tiny bedroom. A very messy tiny bedroom, that is.

The next thing I figured was that this was a boy's room for there were pairs of boxer shorts – at which I couldn't help but blush slightly – lying around here and there.

There were also some empty instant ramen cups lying around, stinking up the whole room. There were clothes just lying on the floor and some porn magazines – at which I winced in disgust – that were slightly under the bed and slightly out. I figured that whoever bought these magazines obviously wanted to hide it but apparently because of all the mess, the magazines somehow made their way out of underneath the bed.

Disgusted with the mess, I wrinkled my nose as I got out of bed – and thanked the Lord that I still had my clothes on.

I pushed open the bedroom door and instantly, I smelled ramen and heard the quiet buzz of a TV.

My mouth watered in hunger as I stepped out of the room and into the kitchen only to find a blond whiskered boy pouring ramen into a bowl and watching TV at the same time – he was watching some sports channel. (I was also overall surprised by the tininess of the apartment.)

"Naruto?" I croaked.

He almost jumped in surprise as he quickly turned to me.

"S-Sakura," He stammered. He then turned to the bowls of ramen sheepishly and then back at me. "Er.. I made ramen?"

I rubbed my eyes as I stepped over to him. "Naruto.. is this your house?"

He nodded sheepishly.

I glanced around.. everything was a _mess. _

Unwashed dishes were stacked up in the sink, textbooks and books in general were lying around on the living room with boxes of tissue and crumples of paper lying here and there.

"Um.. why am I here?" I asked.

He scratched the back of his head. "Well, you fell asleep on me at the school rooftop yesterday and I didn't know where the keys to your home were so I just took you in." He shrugged as he unconsciously mixed the noodles with a chopstick. "I hope you don't mind..?"

"Of course I don't mind!" I quickly defended.

Pause.

I blushed a little. "And..thanks.."

He shrugged again and pushed a bowl of ramen to me. "Here.. you slept all day yesterday and didn't eat a thing, so I bet you're starving."

He was right. I was famished..

I devoured my bowl quickly – and so did he.

We just sat in silence for a moment afterwards. The only sound to be heard was the TV.

He cleared his throat hesitantly. "Um.."

I turned to him, questioningly.

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

I couldn't help but smile a little.

He looked kind of.._cute _when he was hesitant or uncertain or just plain confused.

"Er..Sakura.." He started, straightening up a little. "Um..I really think you should see Sai..one last time before he..leaves.."

My heart stopped for a moment.

_Sai._

I swallowed as I avoided eye contact with him.

"Why should I?" I blurted.

He bit his lower lip and sighed. "You'd.. you'd feel much better talking to him one last time before he leaves and.. and besides, he has to talk to you. He – he says he's not asking for forgiveness but he just wants to tell you the whole story since he doesn't want to leave with you misunderstanding him a little."

"What's there to misunderstand?" I asked coolly. "I saw it happen with my own eyes."

"_Sakura,_" He said, looking at me hard. "Stop trying to act tough.."

He heaved a sigh.

"He said that he has to be at the airport by eleven and it's already nine thirty so you should hurry up if you want to meet him.."

He then stood up and left me in my pondering.

–

I heaved a sigh as I hesitantly pushed open the door of the cafe.

Pursing my lips, and my heart thumping loudly, I looked around and finally spotted Sai.

He was sitting down and he had a faraway look in his eyes as if he was daydreaming about something..

_or someone.._

I winced as I swiftly walked over to him.

His head snapped up to me.

"Sakura.." He breathed.

I didn't say anything as I took a seat across from him.

Silence.

"Sakura..I – I'm so happy that you agreed to see me today before I leave," He murmured.

I didn't reply.

He heaved a sigh. "I..I know that this isn't enough, but..I'm _truly _sorry. I'm not asking for forgiveness or anything but I just want you to know that I am.."

_Sure.._

He closed his eyes and sighed again. "Sakura.. the truth is.."

And he filled me in.

He told me the whole story about how he so badly didn't _want _to fall in love with Ino. How he tried hard _not to.._but he couldn't help but keep coming to her and talk to her. He said that she was like a drug to him. He said that Ino also was having a tough time – that she didn't want to fall in love with him either but it just.._happened. _He said that she fell in love at first sight and she flirted with him and all but she thought that she only did that because it was what she always did. But it wasn't like that.. she really loved him. He said that she tried hard not to fall in love for she knew that he was all mine.. and that she had to respect that. But she couldn't help it.

He also said that the kiss – it was unintentional. They were just walking along and then stopped and just looked at each other and kissed. He said that he tried to pull away but he couldn't since his temptation got the best of him and soon they were making out, warming up.

He said that it felt so _right._

"Sakura..I – I'm so, _so _sorry.." He murmured.

I closed my eyes.

"What're you.. what're you and Ino going to do now?" I murmured.

He hesitated. "We're.. just going to have a long distance..relationship."

I opened my eyes and avoided eye contact with him as I nodded slowly.

"Sakura.." He said.

"Thank you," I said.

"..W-what?" He said, his eyes widening in disbelief.

"Thanks for telling me this.."

"Oh.." He said. "I'm glad you came and heard me out.."

Pause.

He glanced at his watch and stood up, placing a hand on his suitcase.

"Well.. I really have to get going to the airport now," He said.

I turned to him and nodded as I stood up too.

We just gazed at each other for a moment.

"So.. I guess this is goodbye," He murmured.

I shrugged. "Perhaps.."

He smiled as he hugged me one last time and quickly let go as he left the cafe.

I heaved a sigh.

For some reason, I felt slightly relieved.

I smiled a little.

Naruto was right.

I felt a bit better now..

I left the cafe, smelling the fresh air.

_Every story has an ending, but in life, every ending is just the beginning.. _

_

* * *

  
_

**A/N: Booyaaah..**

**I actually like Ino..and Sai. e.o  
**

**So I don't want to make them look.._too _bad. **

**Oh and I bet I'm the fastest updater you've ever met, eh? .__.  
**

**(idk..XD) **


	13. Think Before You Speak

**A few months later..**

–

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Sakura.**

Ever since Sai left during spring, the days went by way too quickly. Ino had apologized over and over about 'stealing Sai from me' and I finally forgave her. After all, I was never really the type to hold grudges against people and plus, Ino was one of my best friends. I didn't want to lose that friendship I had with her over some guy.

Ino and Sai visited each other every single holiday and vacation and chance they could get. It was mostly Sai visiting us though since he was now more familiar with us. He was even planning to get a transfer at our school just to be with Ino so he was studying for the entrance exams. Sai and I were on pretty good terms now – and we were just friends and I had to admit.. Sai and Ino _did _look pretty cute together. It just kind of surprised me how fast they fell in love and how fast they were moving.

Oh and, I finally got over Sai. Psh, no big deal. Surprisingly, it only took a few weeks to get over him. I wouldn't admit this aloud, but I think he wasn't all _that _special or important to me, I guessed. But really, it was because I had such good friends.. especially, and surprisingly, Naruto. He helped me _so damn much. _

Everything else is still pretty much the same except we're finally juniors in high school now. And as the months go by, I keep finding myself getting closer and closer to Naruto. It's actually pretty surprising considering how much we hated each other in the beginning. Of course, we still bicker and annoy each other, but it's only light and playful, and we find ourselves laughing in the end. Every time I'm with him, I just feel so _good. _And now, I feel like he's my real best friend. The greatest friend I could have..

–

"_I think my brain's going to explode if I read another word_!!" Naruto shouted suddenly as he clutched his head as if in agony.

The librarian shot us a glare as she hissed, "_Shh_!"

"Sorry!" I mouthed at her then glared at Naruto too as I hit his head with my book.

"Ow!" He cried softly, rubbing the back of his head.

"_Idiot_, shut up! We're at the _library, _remember? You can't just go shouting out stupid things! Do you want to be kicked out of here, huh?! _Do you_?!" I scolded.

"But _Sakura, _I can't study anymore! Besides, I'm not a nerd like you," He whined.

"I am _not _a nerd!" I snapped.

He rolled his eyes. "And I'm Santa Clause."

I hit him with my book again.

He winced.

I then sighed as I closed my books and stacked them up. "Well.. I guess we _could _use a little break though.."

He instantly stood up and cheered, "_WOOHOO!_" which only made the librarian send us more glares.

I rolled my eyes. "And besides, if we don't get out of here any faster, we _are _going to end up getting kicked outbecause of _you._"

He grinned sheepishly as he gathered his books and bag and jacket as I did too and we left the library.

"_Finally, _fresh air!" The blond cried exaggeratedly as he breathed in the cool air.

Autumn was here and winter would soon be approaching. It felt nice after having the hot weather for so long.

We continued walking along, our feet crunching on the leaves. I wrapped my scarf around myself tighter and then turned back to the blond knucklehead.

"So, where to now, Mr. I-can't-study-for-my-life?" I sneered.

"_Hey_! I can _too _study!" He snapped.

And then we went on bickering whether or not he could study and kept on walking along, unaware of where we were going.

"You guys never seem to stop arguing."

We both ditched our argument as we turned to see Sasuke, smirking at us.

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Hey teme."

"Yo," He responded curtly. "Why are you two out here? Shouldn't you be studying for the exams next week?"

"_Gah_!" Naruto screeched as he held up his hands in front of his face towards Sasuke. "Not another _word _about the exams _or_ studying! It seems like that's all anyone can think about these days! Besides, Sakura and I just came from the library, studying _all day long_! So we decided to finally go out and have some fresh air."

"Naruto, we've only been there for two hours," I said, rolling my eyes.

His eyes widened. "No way!" He cried as he checked his watch. "Aw _damn, _it felt like it took the whole day!"

"_Idiot_," I murmured.

"Whatever, I'm _hungry_! Let's go get ramen! _Not my treat_!" Naruto quickly added.

"Hn, my treat," Sasuke offered.

"Aw, thanks. You're so nice, Sasuke-kun," I grinned.

"What about me?!" Naruto said, pointing to himself.

"You _wish_!" I sneered.

We laughed and joked and teased the whole way.

–

"Number seventeen is wrong," Sasuke said, raising an eyebrow.

"Huh?! Ugh, what's the answer then?" I sighed as stress overflowed me.

Sasuke, Naruto, Ino and Tenten – even though I wasn't too close to Tenten (we were still friends, but not good friends)– were all at my house. We came a bit after we went to go get ramen and called up some of our friends to see if they wanted to study with us at my place. So now, we were all crowded around in my living room, studying. I just finished doing a test prep and turned it into Sasuke for him to check since he was such a brainiac.

"It's a, not c. You didn't read the question carefully.." He pointed out.

I glanced at the text book and reread the question a bit more carefully this time then slapped my forehead.

"Oh, I'm _so _stupid!" I wailed.

Sasuke shrugged. "As long as you check over your answers, you'll do fine on the test," He said as he handed me back my paper.

I sighed. "I hope so.."

"Sakura, you're too stressed for your own good," Ino remarked.

I pouted. "I can't help it.. I get so _stressed _when exams come up."

"I've noticed," She responded as she rolled her eyes.

Then suddenly, Tenten chuckled lightly as she turned to us. "Look, Naruto's _sleeping_."

We all turned to Naruto and sure enough, the blond idiot was dozing. He was sprawled out on the floor, with his mouth hanging wide open – looking much like the time we were stuck on the rooftop.

I giggled as I glanced at my watch. It read ten thirty.

"Well, it _is _getting pretty late," I mumbled.

"Hn, we should go," Sasuke said as he gathered his books and stuffed them into his bag.

When they finally finished packing and cleaning up, Sasuke picked up Naruto and shifted him onto his back.

"Er, are you okay?" I asked him. "Maybe you should wake up the idiot.."

"It would be worse if we woke him up. Trust me, he's not the one you can just lightly and playfully wake up. He often still thinks he's dreaming and does stupid crap sometimes during the first few minutes," He responded as they headed towards the door.

I blushed. _Yeah, I kind of found that out too.._

"And anyways, don't worry, I'll take him back home safely.. I know that you care about him a lot."

_What does he mean by that?!_

Ino smiled and waved as she headed out the door. "Thanks for having me over. See ya later, girlfriend!"

I weakly waved and smiled back as the last sentence Sasuke said echoed through my mind. "No problem, bye." _He probably just means that I care a lot about him as a friend.. right?!_

"Oh wait, Sakura!" Tenten gasped as she took a step towards the door. "I've been meaning to ask you something about you and Na – "

"It can wait. It's pretty late right now. Bye," Sasuke interrupted suddenly and then he quickly tugged Tenten and swiftly shut the door behind them before I could say a single word.

And then it was quiet.

My head was spinning.

_What is Tenten talking about_?!

–

I lied on my bed, wide awake. No matter how much I tossed and turned, I couldn't seem to get comfortable enough to fall asleep and my eyes weren't even tired.

And anyways, so many thoughts were swimming in my head, it'd be almost impossible to sleep at this rate.

I glanced slowly at the clock for the umpteenth time. It read two in the morning.

I sighed as I pulled my blanket closer to my chin and gazed at the dark ceiling.

"_And anyways, don't worry, I'll take him back home safely.. I know that you care about him a lot."_

I cried out a little in frustration. _What the hell is that supposed to mean?! Is that a hint or something?! Or does he mean it just as a friend? Am I over thinking this whole situation?! GAH, just when I thought that exams would be my only stress, now __**this! **__I can't believe this.. _

"_I've been meaning to ask you something about you and Na – "_

_Me and who?! Naruto, I'm guessing.. And ask me what?! Does she think I have feelings for him?! Do they think that we've got something going on? _I blushed at the thought.

I slapped my forehead lightly. _Am I stressing over nothing?!_

I sighed as I begged myself to stop thinking and sleep but every time I tried, the thoughts drifted back and I became wide awake once again. It was like a whole cycle just repeating itself over and over again.

_Do I love Naruto though?_

The thought surprised me. Love?

For some reason, my mind drew a blank.

_Love..Naruto? Love? Naruto?_

The idiot who gave a bad impression by pulling a prank at school, the idiot who argued with me from the very beginning, the idiot who disliked me from the start, the idiot who yet still kept hanging around with me, the idiot who got wounded and I had to treat his wounds, the idiot who got locked on the school rooftop with me, the idiot who played BS with me, the idiot who helped me when Sai cheated on me, the idiot who keeps making me laugh and smile, the idiot who makes me feel good, the idiot who..

I frowned.

And for some reason, all too quickly, it just all seemed to make sense.

And then it clicked.

_The idiot whom I love. _

–

"Tenten!" I called as I quickly slammed my locker door shut and ran up to her.

The brunette smiled pleasantly back at me. "Hey Sakura, what's up?"

I blushed a little. "Er, actually I have something to ask you.."

"Ask away."

I cleared my throat. "Okay..well..I was wondering.. about last night.. you know, when you were about to ask me something while you were leaving my place but Sasuke-kun interrupted you?"

She tapped her index finger on her chin and nodded. "_Oh yeah_..."

"So..I was wondering just what exactly you were going to ask me."

She grinned mischievously. "Alright, alright, I'll ask ya. But the other guys are going to seriously _murder _me if they find out I told you this.. anyways, it's just that, well, the others and I have been sort of wondering if you.. well, if you have feelings for Naruto and maybe you guys..have something going on?"

I could feel my face heating up as my heart thumped loudly.

_I wasn't over thinking, I wasn't over thinking, I wasn't over thinking, I wasn't over thinking, I wasn't over thinking.. _I kept repeating the same thing over and over in my head.

"H-huh? Oh.. w-what?! I – I uh.." I stammered. _Wow.. what the hell do I say?!_

She leaned in closer, grinning broadly. "Come _on, _Sakura. _Spill it. _My lips are sealed, if you want."

I blushed as I clutched my books closer to my chest.

"O-okay.. the truth is.. yes.. I – I," I stammered. _Damn, I'm sounding too much like Hinata. _"I.. have feelings for Naruto."

"I _knew it_!" Tenten shouted then she instantly sheepishly grinned back at me. "Eheheh.. sorry."

"Is it.. is it that obvious?"

She shrugged. "You guys are always hanging around each other.. just the two of you most of the time."

"We're just.. good friends.." I mumbled.

She smiled. "But you want to take it to the next level, don't ya?"

I blushed furiously. "_Tenten_.."

The brunette merely chuckled. "Sorry, sorry.. _anyways_, Naruto has feelings for you too."

My eyes widened. "What? _No way. _Don't lie to me. How do _you _know?"

"I'm not! Look, Neji's my boyfriend and Neji is a close friend of Naruto. He said that all that idiot can talk about is _you _and think about is _you _and although he hasn't really asked him yet, he's pretty positive that that idiot has got the _hots for you too_!"

I looked away, skeptical. "I don't know.."

"I think you should confess to him!"

I blushed and shook my head. "No way! I don't have the confidence for that.. besides, I bet you're just bluffing with me about Naruto.."

Tenten gaped. "I'm _not_! I'm _insulted, _Sakura! You think I'd _lie _to you? And what do you mean you don't have the confidence? Is the Sakura Haruno who punches and yells at guys with her mighty strength saying that she doesn't have the confidence for _confessing to a guy_?" She cried fakely.

I grinned. "Maybe.."

Tenten smiled back. "Well..I really think you should tell him.. or else you two aren't going anywhere if you both like each other but don't make the first move because you're both afraid the other doesn't like you back. Psh, I'm telling you, he's head over heels for you!"

I waved her off. "Shut up, Tenten..."

The bell suddenly rang.

"Aw _damn, _sorry for making you late, Tenten!" I cried as I raced away. "And don't you tell _anyone _about what I just told you! Especially a particular blond knucklehead!"

She chuckled. "I won't!"

I smiled a little as I quickly ran into class.

–

**Naruto.**

"Come _on, _Sakura. _Spill it. _My lips are sealed, if you want," Tentens voice whispered.

I stopped at my tracks as I quickly hid behind the wall.

_Ooo, a secret? I want to know! _I thought mischievously.

"O-okay.. the truth is.. yes.. I – I," Sakura's voice sounded. "I.. have feelings for Naruto."

My heart came to a stop.

_Wait..rewind.._

…

_**What?!?!**_

"I _knew it_!" Tenten shouted. "Eheheh.. sorry."

"Is it.. is it that obvious?" Sakura's voice asked meekly.

"You guys are always hanging around each other.. just the two of you most of the time."

"We're just.. good friends.."

"But you want to take it to the next level, don't ya?"

"_Tenten_.." I could almost hear her blush.

The brunette merely chuckled. "Sorry, sorry.. _anyways_, Naruto has feelings for you too."

I had to grip my hand on the cold wall to keep myself from jumping in.

_How does she know?! _

"What? _No way. _Don't lie to me. How do _you _know?" Sakura's voice demanded.

_That's what **I'd **like to know._

"I'm not! Look, Neji's my boyfriend and Neji is a real close friend of Naruto. He said that all that idiot can talk about is _you _and think about is _you _and although he hasn't really asked him yet, he's pretty positive that that idiot has got the _hots for you too_!" Tenten's voice cried.

I bit my lower lip.

_Damn, she makes me sound so transparent! I'm not transparent, believe it! _I thought helplessly.

"I don't know.." Sakura said skeptically.

"I think you should confess to him!"

"No way! I don't have the confidence for that.. besides, I bet you're just bluffing with me about Naruto.."

_She's not, _I wanted to shout.

"I'm _not_! I'm _insulted, _Sakura! You think I'd _lie _to you? And what do you mean you don't have the confidence? Is the Sakura Haruno who punches and yells at guys with her mighty strength saying that she doesn't have the confidence for _confessing to a guy_?" Tenten cried in an overly exaggerated and fakely insulted voice.

"Maybe.." Sakura replied playfully.

"Well..I really think you should tell him.. or else you two aren't going anywhere if you both like each other but don't make the first move because you're afraid the other doesn't like you back. Psh, I'm telling you, he's head over heels for you!"

I blushed at this.

"Shut up, Tenten..."

The bell suddenly rang.

_Damn it! _I thought as I quickly began walking away a bit slowly so that I could hear the rest of their conversation.

"Aw _damn, _sorry for making you late, Tenten!" Sakura's voice cried as it grew more and more distance. "And don't you tell _anyone _about what I just told you! Especially a particular blond knucklehead!"

I smiled.

Tenten chuckled. "I won't!"

I then ran back into class.

And all the way, I could only think of one thing as my heart beat ever so loudly.

_She loves me, she loves me, she loves me, she loves me.._

* * *

**A/N: I KNOW THAT EVERYTHING SEEMS TO HAPPEN TOO QUICKLY AND SAKURA'S FEELINGS SEEM TO BE TOO ABRUPT AND EVERYTHING BUT PLEASE CONSIDER THAT THAT A FEW MONTHS HAVE PASSED SINCE SAI LEFT DD8;;; GAH. And also, Sakura is acting very timid in this chapter..sorry o__o;**

**And if you think that the ending is nearing, YOU THOUGHT WRONG. The ending is SO NOT NEARING. There are still SO MANY PROBLEMS ahead (some new problems will come up and some old ones that have been long forgotten over the chapters will be brough up again..MWUAHAHAHAHA..-shot-) **


	14. And the Reason is You

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Naruto.**

I sighed as I silently strummed my fingers against the cold strings of the guitar. I could play it a little, wasn't all that great at it, but there were a few songs I have mastered.

I leaned against the wall and just gazed at the sky as I continued to strum my fingers, trying to think of a song to play.

"_O-okay.. the truth is.. yes.. I – I..I.. have feelings for Naruto," _Sakura's voice echoed.

I sighed. I couldn't stop thinking about what she said, about _her. _

_Is this all just one big joke? Did they somehow know that I was coming along and quickly jumped into the topic to mislead me? Is it April Fools already? Wait.. it's only November. But seriously, who would love **me**_? _And of all people, why would **she **fall for me? We were complete opposites, always arguing.._

_She's rich, I'm poor. She's smart, I'm dumb. She's careful, I'm reckless. She's got a normal life and has a clean record, I have pretty much a screwed up life and have been arrested and fined so many times, I lost count. _

_And on top of all that, she's **perfect.**_

_I'm **not. **_

_I'm in fact the total opposite of perfect. I'm **far** from perfect._

I sighed.

But.. ever since she came into my life, I seemed to ditch all those horrible things I did. I stopped drinking, sleeping with random girls, going to bars, playing the most horrible pranks, and getting into fist fights..

I closed my eyes. It was as if..she was _healing _me..

But still..it seemed impossible for her to fall for me.

The more I thought about it, the more I started doubting.

_Maybe I was just having hallucinations or something.. besides, all day long, she's been acting as if nothing happened. She's acting completely normal around me, nothing different. There's no difference about her.. I can see or a hint telling me that she's into me. Nothing._

I suddenly heard the door of the rooftop creak open.

I quickly turned and saw a certain pink haired girl step in.

My heart skipped a beat.

_Sakura. _

She turned and grinned at me as she walked towards me.

"Thought you'd be here.." She said as she sat down next to me.

_She was looking for me?_

She raised an eyebrow. "You play the guitar?"

I shrugged. "I'm not all that good.."

"Oh yeah? Let's see you play a song. Oh and of course _sing too,_" Sakura teased.

"Pff, fine. It's not like I'm horrible or anything," I said haughtily.

She rolled her eyes playfully.

_What song should I play? _

I ran over all the songs I knew how to sort of play on the guitar and finally found the perfect one.

My face broke into a smile as I strummed my fingers along the guitar and as the guitar tuned into a slow song.

"_I'm not a perfect person," _I began singing quietly. "_There's many things I wish I didn't do.._

_But I continue learning_

_I never meant to to do those things to you_

_And so I have to say before I go.._

_That I just want you to know_

_I found a reason for me_

_To change who I used to be_

_A reason to start over new_

_And the reason is you.."_

There was more to the song, but I didn't master the whole song yet so I just stopped singing quietly and ended the song as I strummed the last few notes and finished.

It was quiet.

I hesitantly turned to her and she was gazing at me, in awe. Her emerald eyes were wide.

_Does she know that this song is for her? _

"Naruto," She said quietly. "That was _beautiful._ I never knew you could play the guitar _and _sing so well!"

I felt my face heating up.

"Not really.." I said uncomfortably, not really used to compliments.

"Psh," She said as she punched my arm lightly. "Just say _thank you._"

I grinned at her. "Thanks."

We just smiled at each other for a while.

And then, I had the urge to kiss her – it was something I had to overcome everyday. It was a temptation that kept bothering me in the back of my head every time I saw her. It was in fact, getting worse and worse.

And finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

I opened my mouth.

And I finally asked her before I could stop myself.

"You're the reason I've changed," I said softly. "Will you go out with me?"

And without missing a beat, her jade eyes gazed at me.

"_Duh,_" She replied, grinning playfully as if she's been waiting for me to ask the obvious all her life.

**A/N: Uh no, I didn't make up the song. It's a real song. It's called _The Reason _by Hoobastank. So yeah, I guess this is also a sort of disclaimer. I don't own the song, goddammit! **

**Short chapter, harrharr. **


	15. And the Word's Out

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Sakura.**

"_What_?!" Ino blurted out as she slammed her glass of water down on the table, shock dripping from her voice and expression.

Startled and surprised by her reaction, I quickly began to casually avoid eye contact and stir my coffee with a spoon as I shrugged.

Ino, Hinata, Tenten, and I were all crowded in our popular hangout, Leaf Cafe. We were just having a girls' night out. I heard that the guys were having a..er, 'boys' night out' too?

"Is there a problem with that?" I asked as I sipped my coffee.

"_Yes, _there's a problem! This is _Naruto, _we're talking about! _Naruto Uzumaki_!" Ino cried, flailing up her hands.

"Ino-chan.." Hinata said quietly, shooting a worried glance at Ino then back at me.

"Ino, don't be so harsh," Tenten said quietly.

I turned to the blond girl, my eyebrow raising. "I know. Is there something _wrong _with Naruto?" I asked, trying to keep myself from snapping and getting mad.

She instantly sinked back into her seat as a panicky look spread throughout her face. She obviously didn't like everyone being against her.

"Well, _no.._but.." Ino mumbled. "I mean.. do you even know _half_ the things he's done in the past? He was always getting into fist fights, getting roaring drunk, and he slept with random girls at the bar. He's a _delinquent.._and he's not exactly the type who would go out with someone. You're in fact his first, I bet."

I smiled. "Then, I feel flattered."

"_Sakura, _you don't get it!"

"No Ino, _you _don't get it.. Naruto's changed. He's not like that anymore.. sure, he's still a stupid idiot and plays pranks all the time, but he doesn't drink, sleep with random girls, or get into fist fights anymore. Sure, he still may be labeled as a delinquent and a troublemaker, but he's not as bad as he used to be. And just because he's a delinquent doesn't mean that he can't go out with someone, now does it? Just because he's a delinquent doesn't mean that he can't fall in love, now does it?"

There was a shocking pause after that.

"Gee, Sakura.." Ino said, blinking rapidly. "What – what _happened _to you? I thought you guys.. like _really disliked _each other.."

I smiled a little. "I thought so too.."

"In any case, I'm happy for you, Sakura-chan," Hinata said suddenly, grinning. "Congratulations."

"Yeah, me too. Congrats," Tenten congratulated with a wink.

I smiled appreciatively at them. "Thanks."

Ino sighed as she rested her head on her hand. "Well, I suppose I'll congratulate you too. Congratulations and sorry for my reaction.. I was just really surprised. I'd never really thought that you would end up with Naruto. Anyways, I'm glad. Now the knucklehead will finally know what it's like to love someone and if he ever does something to break your heart, tell me, and I'll beat that idiot up for you!" She said, grinning.

I chuckled. "Thanks Ino, but if he even does, I'll be able to handle him."

"True that," She chuckled.

–

**Naruto.**

"But you know, this feeling – it's _fantastic_! I feel like I could jump up right now and shout to the whole world, _I love Sakura Haruno_!" I cried as I grinned widely.

I instantly felt someone slapping my back – hard.

"_Ow_!" I cried as I turned to see Kiba rolling his eyes at me.

"Will you _shut the hell up _about Sakura? We get it, you're _oh-so-madly in love _with her! _Damn, _and I thought that you'd never fall in love and be single forever with me and gag at the gushy couples, but now, look at you! _You _just became like one of them!" Kiba cried out.

I laughed. "Sorry, Kiba.. but this feeling is _incredible. _In fact, I think I'm going to go crazy if I don't see her right now! In fact, I think I'm going to mee - " I began as I started to stand up.

"Not so fast, man!" Kiba quickly snapped as he pulled my arm, making me sit down. "She's having a _girl's night out _right now, and right now, we're having 'just the guys' time. Please, it's not everyday we actually get to freely do guy stuff without girls nagging at us. And _anyways, _speaking of Sakura Haruno.. I still can't believe it, man. I mean, it's _Sakura Haruno, _we're talking about. She's like your polar opposite.. yet, you two are awfully similar at the same time.. whoa.. that's.. weird.." Kiba said, dumbfounded.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "I know, I'm the luckiest guy ever."

"I wouldn't go _that _far," Shikamaru snorted.

The rest of the night ended with laughs, jokes, and teasing.

It was overall great and I was happy.

_Happy._

For the first time in a long time, I was actually happy with my life.

–

**Sakura. **

"Naruto!" I called as I caught up with him through the rain, clutching onto my umbrella.

"Hey forehead," He greeted back, grinning.

"Psh, we're going out now, and you're _still _calling me that?" I pouted as I pretended to childishly be annoyed. The nickname actually didn't bother me anymore.. in fact, I actually liked it but only if it came out of Naruto's lips. If anyone else called me that – especially if he or she wasn't my friend – I'd be furious.

He shrugged. "I just like reminding you of how huge your forehead is regardless of us going out now or not."

"Wow, you're so nice," I said sarcastically.

He chuckled lightly as we continued slapping our feet against the wet sidewalk.

"Hey, do you remember?" I asked, grinning. "When, like a long time ago.. we were walking to school and it was raining and you suddenly said, 'gray cotton candies' while staring up at the sky?"

"How could I forget?" He asked, grinning at the memory.

"You were talking about the clouds, weren't you?"

"_Oooh, _and the female Einstein strikes again!"

"Shut up," I said, giggling.

Comfortable silence settled upon us and soon, I took the courage to take his hand and hold it.

I grinned as I felt him glance at me in surprise but then he smiled as his hand relaxed into mine and his fingers intertwined with mine.

His hand was large and warm and fit perfectly with my frail and cool hand. It was like ying and yang, two opposite figures yet, being able to connect just like two puzzle pieces matching.

"So, did you study more for the exams? They're coming up _real _soon," I teased, knowing that he'd explode from the words 'exam' and 'study.'

"_Gah_!!" He shouted as his face was filled in over exaggerated agony. "_Sakura, _must you talk about exams?! I don't want to talk about exams! GAH, let's talk about something else!! _I like chocolate ice cream_!!"

I laughed as we continued on our way.

We soon reached the school building and entered and as we passed by crowds and weaved through people, I could feel them all staring, no, _gawking _at us which only made me hold onto his hand even tighter.

_Please don't let go, _I thought as I could feel their eyes boring onto my back.

Soon enough, whispers flitted around as the stares and gawks continued coming.

_What's so surprising anyways?! _I wanted to shout at them.

I could feel Naruto tensing next to me. I turned to him and saw that he was glancing at the ground.. _shamefully._

I was shocked.

Naruto Uzumaki, _ashamed_?!

And is he.. _ashamed of __me?! _

I felt worse and worse as we continued our way and we finally reached our lockers. I let go of his hand, almost a bit angrily, as I turned to him, frowning.

"Naruto, what's the matter with you?" I demanded.

"Sorry.. Sakura.. it's because of me.." He murmured.

"What're you talking about?!"

"They think – they think that it's strange that a kid like me is actually holding hands with someone like you. They think that I'm no good for you and will only cause as a bad influence on you."

"Don't think like that! Stop making up stories! That's not what they think!"

"Sakura, trust me.. I'm not a very popular guy and I'm known for stirring trouble. You, on the other hand, is really popular and gets straight A's and is.. well, _perfect. _They think we're too different for our own good and they think - " He began.

"Whoa, whoa, _whoa,_" I interrupted as I held up a hand in front. "_Excuse _me?! And where exactly did you hear all this from?!" I demanded haughtily as I placed my hands on my hips.

"It's not about listening, it's about paying attention to people around us.. anyways, I've always been aware of our differences anyways."

I frowned.

I had never seen him so down.

One second, we were laughing and the minute we entered school and everyone stared at us, he immediately turned glum.

I didn't like this.. _at all. _

I took a step towards him and firmly looked at him in the eye.

"_Naruto_," I said quietly. "You're not the Naruto I know. You're not the confident, aloof, knucklehead Naruto I know! Where _is _he? Where did he go? I want you to stop worrying about what other people think.. I want you to stop worrying about our differences.. I want you to just stop thinking about everything and everyone else and just think about _us. _You and me.. You..you love me right?"

He looked stunned by the question. "O-of course."

I smiled. "Then it's settled. It's _okay _as long as we love each other. It doesn't matter what they think of us.. it doesn't matter _one bit._"

And I leaned in close and kissed his cheek reassuringly in front of everyone.

–

"Is it _true, _Sakura-san?! That you're dating that – that.. _Naruto_?!"

"I can't believe it! It's all just fake rumors right, Sakura-san? Don't tell me you're actually going for that idiot!"

"Whoa, from your expression, it looks like it's true!"

"It's true," I responded firmly, glancing at every single one of them. "I _am _going out with Naruto Uzumaki."

All three girls whom I hardly even knew gasped and gawked and gaped.

"_No way_!! Oh my God, no _offense_, Sakura-san.. but there are plenty of other fish in the sea! I mean, how can you choose _Naruto _over _Sasuke-kun_ anyways?! You seem fairly close to Sasuke-kun too! I _envy _you!"

"Naruto isn't _that _bad," I snapped. And with that, I stood up from my seat and pushed the girls lightly aside as I walked across the classroom.

"What a _bitch_," I heard one of the girls hiss as I left the classroom for lunch.

–

"_Honestly_, what is up with everyone?!" I cried as I bit into my apple furiously. "What's so _wrong _about dating Naruto?! I had to answer like five hundred questions today – and I didn't even know _half _of the people who asked me!"

Ino sighed as she twirled her fork around her pasta. "_Well, _Naruto _does _have a pretty bad reputation, you know.. and it's just kind of surprising that a girl like you – well, _any _girl that is, would go for a guy like that, no offense. I mean a guy who's a total idiot and is even hated by people people he's never met."

I sighed. "I can't believe it.. I feel really.. sorry for him."

"Sorry for who? I hope you're not talking about _me_," a familiar voice said.

We all turned and saw Naruto as he sat down next to me and stole my cookie as he bit into it.

"Oh – of course not," I quickly lied. "We were just talking about this random guy Hinata met yesterday. _Weren't we, Hinata_?"

Hinata quickly nodded in agreement, blushing furiously.

Naruto chuckled and then he leaned in close to me.

"_Meet me at the rooftop after school,_" He whispered then just as quickly as that, he pulled away and went on eating his bag of chips.

"_Oooh,_" Tenten grinned in a teasing voice. "What did he say? Some sappy 'I love you'?"

We laughed.

–

As soon as the bell rang for the end of school, I picked up books and bolted out of the classroom as I raced to my locker. I just threw in all my textbooks into my bag, not wanting to think what kind of homework we had 'cause that would take time. As soon as I finished, I slammed my locker door shut and raced out of the hallway and flew up the staircase to the rooftop.

Grinning widely, as soon as I reached the door, I slammed the door open, expecting to be first – but I was wrong. Naruto was _already _there.

Panting, I walked up to him, scowling.

He turned and grinned at me. "What's the matter? You look pissed."

"And you.. you.. look.. _happy _that I'm.. that I'm _pissed_," I growled in between pants.

"I can't help it. You look cute when you're pissed."

I sloppily smacked his shoulder – it was sloppy because I was still trying to catch my breath.

"How did you .. get here so fast?" I asked, my breathing slowing down.

The blond shrugged as he handed me a coke can. "I skipped last period."

"_What_?!" I blurted out as I opened the can.

"_Chill,_ it was PE, okay? Nothing important."

"_Still_, I can't believe you skipped class.. and what for? To be the first one on the rooftop?"

"Just forget it, forehead," He grinned.

I muttered under my breath as I took a drink.

"_So, _why did you ask me to meet you up here?" I questioned, feeling refreshed.

Naruto continued to grin as he took out two instant ramen cups from his bag.

For a moment, I felt stunned, but then I laughed.

He handed one to me and took one for himself.

"Er, what about hot water?" I asked.

He took out a bottle of steaming hot water – how did it continue to stay hot, I didn't know! - and poured some into his after he poured the sauce into it.

I chuckled. "You really came prepared.. and is _this _your idea of a romantic date?" I teased.

"Hey, I think it's pretty _unique_," He replied, trying to sound hurt.

I laughed.

And through the rest of the day, as we ate our ramen and continued to laugh, I realized that it was all worth it.

I smiled.

_I don't care what they think.. this.. this is definitely all worth it._


	16. This isn't a Court Case

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Sakura.**

"Oh my God, I'm so nervous.." I wailed as we stepped into the crowded hallways and as I took a sip of my coffee.

"Er, maybe you should get rid of the coffee.. it's going to make you more jittery," Ino advised with a frown as I continued to wobble.

"_No_!" I snapped as I hugged my coffee cup tightly. "I _need _this! I only got two hours of sleep last night 'cause I was up so late, _studying_, and I can't afford sleeping during the exams! Hell, that would be my _worst nightmare_!!"

"_Okay, okay, _sheesh!" Ino quickly said. "No need to get all protective over your coffee."

I didn't reply as I took another swig and the bitter taste sank into my tongue.

I swallowed and opened my locker, my legs wobbling, my forehead sweaty, my hands shaking.

_Oh God, oh God.. just a few minutes and the exams will start.. oh God, oh God... _I thought nervously as I took out my pencil case and closed the locker.

"Sakura!" A familiar, warm voice called.

For a moment, I instantly felt better as I turned and saw my favorite blond knucklehead run towards me and wrap his arms around me.

"Hey," I said, still jittery. "I – I.. _I'm so damn nervous_!" I screamed as I clutched my head.

"_Whoa,_" Naruto said as he raised an eyebrow and took a step back.

I almost regretted screaming. I wanted him to continue hugging me for a while, but I didn't say it.

"Chill, you'll do fine. You studied like 24/7.. Hell, if there's _anyone _who should really be worried, it should be me and look at me, I'm so carefree right now," Naruto assured.

I rolled my eyes at him. "That's 'cause you honestly don't care if you fail or not!"

He shrugged. "True that.."

I sighed as I finished off my coffee and threw it in the garbage can.

I swallowed hard as I pushed passed him, slightly annoyed for an unknown reason, and stepped towards my classroom.

"Hey Sakura!" He called.

Irritated, I turned, scowling at him.

He grinned. "Good luck!"

And with that, he turned back and stepped into his class. (All the girls would take the exams in one class, and the boys in another.)

I couldn't help but smile a little as I walked inside mine, feeling a little calmer and better from just those two words from just a single person.

–

"_Kurenai-sensei_!" A girl's voice called from behind me.

Kurenai glanced up from her desk and walked over to whoever just called her.

I groaned silently to myself, annoyed. I hated it when people had to call teachers' names so loudly when you were taking a test, especially an _important exam. _It just ruined your whole concentration and now that my concentration was ruined, I had to read the question all over again.

_When two and a half cups of flour.. _

"I think Sakura-san is cheating with a cheat sheet."

My eyes widened as my heart stopped pounding.

I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I whirled around and blurted out at the girl, "_what_?!"

I realized that it was Karin – some redhead I hardly knew – who said it.

She had black-rimmed glasses and scene red hair. She was smiling smugly at me, and then she instantly turned to Kurenai, an innocent pout on her face.

"Is this true, Haruno-san?" Kurenai asked, her worried eyebrows furrowed, her lips upturned, and her crimson eyes disbelieving.

_Don't believe her! I don't know what the hell she's talking about! _I wanted to scream, but I kept my cool.

"_No_," I instantly defended. I said it in a, 'no-duh' tone.

Kurenai raised an eyebrow.

"She's lying!" Karin screeched, glaring at me. "I _saw _her! I _saw _her glance at a cheat sheet, I swear! You can check inside her exam book to see her cheat sheet!"

I rolled my eyes as Kurenai sighed and glanced back at me.

"Can I see your exam book for a moment?" She questioned politely.

"Sure," I said, rolling my eyes as I handed her my book.

_Karin is going to look like a total idiot after she realizes that there **is no **cheat - _

But suddenly, a few gasps and whispers filled the room and I snapped my head up to see Kurenai read a piece of paper that I've never seen before.

She frowned as she placed the paper down on my desk.

"Haruno-san, _where did you get this_?" Kurenai asked firmly as she slid the paper to me.

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped as I picked up the piece of paper.

_1. A_

_2. B_

_3. D_

_4. A_

and so on, and so forth.

_These are the answers to the tests, what the hell?! _

"I – I don't know!" I blurted, my heart pounding loudly.

"_Yeah right, you cheater_!" Karin shouted victoriously and accusingly.

I shot her a glare. "I'm _serious_, I don't know where this came from!!" I turned back to the doubtful Kurenai hopelessly. "_Kurenai-sensei, I swear I don't know where this came from_! I – I swear, I didn't cheat! I never, _ever _had a cheat sheet! I – I.." I stammered, not knowing what to say.

Kurenai heaved a deep breath as she gave me a stern look. "Maybe you can discuss this with Tsunade-sama," She said quietly, raising an eyebrow as she motioned towards the door.

I gaped at her, and just sat there. "But _Kurenai-sensei -_ "

"_Now._"

Without another word, I stood up, feeling all eyes on me.

I took another swift look at Karin and saw her smile smugly at me.

My eyes widened, but I walked out of the classroom, my heart beating loudly.

_I didn't cheat! I didn't **cheat**!! _

The same words kept racing around my head.

–

**Naruto.**

I scratched the back of my head as I stared at the question blankly

_I mean.. seriously, who the hell would care to measure a - _

"Kakashi-sensei," a voice – an _utterly _annoying voice – called from next to me.

Kakashi walked over, his eyes never leaving that perverted book he always read.

I didn't bother to turn to Suigetsu – it didn't matter to me what question he had.

I yawned and stretched a bit as I continued to stare blankly at the question.

_I wonder how Sakura's doing.. probably acing the test right now.. eh, maybe I should just take a nap.. _I thought as I slowly lowered my head towards the desk.

_No! _I thought quickly as my head snapped up from the desk. _I can't give up now.. I gotta at least give it a try. I can't give up, I'll never give up! Yosh! _

I sighed as I turned back to the ques -

"I think Naruto's _cheating. _I swear I saw him look at a cheat sheet," Suigetsu said.

"_Eh_?!" I blurted out, hearing my name and the word, _cheat, _go together.

I snapped my head to turn to Suigetsu, and gawked at him.

"Idiot!! _I'm not cheating_!" I snapped. "Bastard, why would you think I'd cheat?!"

There were a few disagreeing murmurs.

I turned up at Kakashi whose eyes had finally left the novel.

He was glancing at me then at Suigetsu, then back at me again.

"Well.." Kakashi murmured, scratched his mask. "Hand me your exam book for a moment please, Naruto?"

Rolling my eyes, I handed it to him.

"Idiot, Suigetsu," I glared at him. "I'll _show _you that I have no cheat sheet!"

"Then Naruto," Kakashi said calmly. "What is _this_?"

He handed me a piece of paper – a piece of paper I've never seen.

_1. A_

_2. B_

_3. D_

_4. A_

And the answers went so on and so forth.

I gawked at the paper.

"_Whoa, _are these all the answers to the exams?!" I gasped.

"Naruto, they came from your exam book," Kakashi responded exasperatedly.

There were a few snickers from the classroom.

"_Eh _?!" I blurted out, gawking at Kakashi. "No way!! _I've never seen this! I've never had a cheat sheet! What the hell!?" _

I stood up from my seat, and glared at everyone. "Who the hell put that in my exam book?!"

"Cut the act, and go to Tsunade-sama's office," Kakashi sighed.

I turned back to Kakashi.

"_What_?! No way! I'm not going to the old hag's office if I didn't do anything wrong!! I swear, someone's _framing _me!" I cried, panicking.

"_Naruto, _go.. _now._"

"_Kakashi-sensei, _I swear I - "

He sighed. "Do I have to _make _you?"

Uncomfortable silence fell as every single student stared at us.

I glared at him. "_Fine._"

And with that, I left the room, slamming the door behind me as I stormed across the hallway.

_Damn guys, damn teacher.. what the hell is this?! Some kind of sick joke?! _I thought bitterly as I pushed open the office door.

My eyes widened when I saw the person I least expected to see waiting in the office.

It was unmistakable that it was her.

Pink hair, green eyes.

She turned to me.

"N-Naruto?!"

"_Sakura_?!"

Someone cleared his or her throat.

I turned to the counter and saw the secretary – Shizune – clear her throat and raise an eyebrow at me.

"Uzumaki-san, sent to see Tsunade-sama again?" She asked knowingly.

I nodded.

She sighed. "Take a seat. She'll be with you both in a moment."

I nodded again numbly as I took a seat next to Sakura.

The pinkette continued to gape at me.

"_Naruto, _what the hell are you doing here?!" She hissed.

"I'd like to know the same about you!" I whispered back.

"_Ahem,_" Shizune said, clearing her throat again. "Sakura, you can go in now."

She sighed and nodded as she reluctantly stood up from her seat, gave me one last desperate 'save-me' look and disappeared into Tsunade's office.

–

**Sakura.**

I slowly stepped inside Tsunade's office hesitantly and closed the door behind me.

Tsunade was at her desk – her desk which was covered completely with stacks of papers, books, cups, pencils, pens.. I couldn't even see the wooden top of the desk.

"Have a seat," She mumbled, not even glancing up from her paperwork.

I reluctantly sat down stiffly on a sofa, my heart pounding loudly as I thought of what defenses I could use.

Tsunade finally left her desk and took a seat on the sofa across from me as she studied my face.

"Sakura Haruno?" She finally asked.

"Y-yes?" I peeped.

"_Hm.. _this is the first time I've ever seen you sent to my office.. so, what seems to be the problem?" She asked, eyebrows raised.

I groaned a little.

"They've accused me of _cheating _when I didn't!" I blurted.

Silence.

I blushed.

"S-sorry," I said quietly.

"Cheating, eh? I believe it's exam period.."

I nodded.

"And you've been caught 'cheating'?" She asked, putting air quotes around _cheating._

I nodded once more.

"Tell me the whole story."

And I did. I told her about how I was concentrating on my own work when suddenly Karin called Kurenai and accused me of cheating from a cheat sheet. I told her that I didn't know what the hell she was talking about because I _had no _cheat sheet and as Kurenai picked up my exam book, she also picked out this piece of paper that had all the answers to the exams from _my exam book. _

I was so shocked 'cause I've never seen the paper before and because this was all _ridiculous. _

I also told Tsunade that I was sure that someone framed me and I was positive of who did it.. _Karin. _

There was a moment of silence afterwards.

Tsunade seemed to ponder this for a while.

My heart beat rapidly as I awaited her response.

_Oh please, oh please believe me.. _I thought longingly.

"Sakura," She finally said.

It was always known for Tsunade to be very informal with all the students. (Same with Kakashi too..)

"Yes?"

"Please wait here as I call in Karin. I want to talk to her too.."

"O-okay."

Tsunade walked up to her desk as she picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Kurenai? It's Tsunade.. can you please call Karin into the office for a moment?" Tsunade said, speaking into the phone. "Thanks."

And with that, she hung up.

"Karin will be here in a few moments, and then, I'll be able to know what to do," Tsunade said as she glanced up at me.

I nodded a little solemnly as I slowly slid down my seat.

We waited a few moments and sure enough, Karin came in the room, shooting a scowl at me, then smiling politely at Tsunade.

"You called for me, Tsunade-sama?"

"That's right. Have a seat, Karin," Tsunade said.

Karin nodded as she tossed her red hair back a little and sat down on the sofa, furthest away from me.

"Karin, as I have heard from Sakura, you have accused her of cheating and Sakura said that she accuses _you _of framing her.." Tsunade mumbled.

Karin's eyes widened.

"_Excuse _me?! _Me, _a _framer_?!" Karin gawked as I rolled my eyes at her unbelievable exaggerated acting.

Tsunade merely nodded.

Karin snorted. "I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama. That's just too _unbelievable _and _shocking _that I just can't answer that! I mean _honestly.. _just because I accused her of cheating doesn't mean that I framed her! I _saw _her cheating with my own eyes!"

"_Liar_!" I snapped before I could stop myself. "I _never _once glanced at the paper! I didn't even know it was there until Kurenai-sensei took it out of my exam book!!"

"_You're _the liar, _Sakura_!" Karin snapped. "And also a _cheater, _too!"

"That's _enough, _girls," Tsunade sighed as she gritted her teeth in annoyance.

We both instantly shut up.

I didn't know Tsunade very well, but from rumors, I heard that she had a very short and hot temper and was also _mega strong. _I heard that she could punch through three walls at a time!

I swallowed hard.

Tsunade sighed as she looked at both of us. "According to the rules, if you are caught cheating, you are immediately suspended for two weeks no matter if you try to back yourself up or not.. and I believe you have nothing to back you up that Karin's framing you? And I believe that there's no witness of anyone framing Karin?"

There was a silence as I felt myself slowly dying.

"That's what I thought, so I _will _go by the rules, Sakura. I'm sorry, but you're suspended for two weeks starting from today. You may pack up your things and go home immediately."

"Ts-Tsunade-sama!" I stammered, feeling the heat rush to my face.

"Sakura, _now."_

I gaped at her as she dismissed the both of us.

We both left the office and as we did, Karin shot _another_ smug smile at me, and she left the secretary's office as well.

Naruto stood up and walked to me, worry written all over his face.

"Sakura, what happened? Why were you sent here?" He asked.

"I.. I.." I stammered, shock still running all over me.

"..alright, Tsunade-sama," Shizune said as she hung up the phone and turned to me. "Haruno-san, please await a moment as I write your suspension form."

"_What_?!" Naruto gasped. "What the hell happened, Sakura?!" He demanded.

I glanced away, ashamed. "I'll tell you later.."

"Oh and you may go in, Uzumaki-san."

Naruto just stood there as I stepped over to the counter and waited for Shizune to finish writing my form.

"Just go in, Naruto," I mumbled.

He frowned then stepped inside.

I sighed as Shizune handed me the form and I left the office, quite angrily.

I stepped back into Kurenai's classroom and everyone stared at me as I packed up my stuff and left the classroom. I supposed Tsunade already called Kurenai because she didn't say anything as I packed – only gave me a disapproving look.

I wanted to shout, _stop staring at me like that! I'm innocent, I tell you! I'm innocent!! _

But I didn't.

I then left the class without a single word, and went to my locker, jammed all my belongings into my backpack and left the school buildling.

I had _never _been suspended before..and I didn't even cheat!

_Damn.. I feel like I've just been arrested for something I didn't even do.. _I thought glumly. _I wonder what Naruto did to have been called into the office.. _

–

**Naruto.**

"_I didn't even cheat_!!" I shouted as I slammed my hands down on her desk. "How can you suspend me when I didn't even cheat?!"

"Naruto, calm yourself," Tsunade said sternly. "This isn't the first time you've been suspended and all the other times you have, you've taken it better than this."

I growled. "Thats because I know that I actually _did _those things! This – this I never did!"

"There _is _a witness of you doing so though."

"I demand a lawyer!"

She rolled her eyes at me. "This isn't a court case, Naruto."

I muttered under my breath then backed away from her desk.

"You know what, _fine_! Fine, I'll _leave_! _God_!" I shouted as I kicked open her door and left.

"Wait Uzumaki-san!" Shizune called. "I still need to fill out your suspension form!"

"_Forget it_!" I snapped as I left the office.

_This school's messed up, _I thought furiously as I just barged out of the building.

All I knew right now was that I wanted and needed so badly to see Sakura.

_She's the only one that can make me feel better right now.. besides, I got to find out why **she **got suspended too.._


	17. Impatient for the Truth

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Sakura.**

I crumpled up the slip and threw it down the trash can, never wanting to see it again. Perhaps I was overreacting, but I _had _worked so hard on studying for the exams, and now I was suspended for being accused of cheating when I didn't even cheat?! _How messed up is that_?!

I frowned as I pictured what my parents' reactions would be once Tsunade contacted them about my suspension. They'd be horrified, disappointed, _ashamed._ Konoha High was such a prestigious school and the only two ways to get in was either you had be filthy rich, or pretty damn smart. And, I was never poor or anything but I wasn't rich enough to get into Konoha High! But I was able to get a scholarship to study here.

If my parents thought that I cheated and was wasting my scholarship, they'd be _furious, _of course.

I wondered if they would believe me if I told them that I actually didn't cheat.

_Maybe.. hopefully.. _

But a small part of me whispered, _no way.. no one would believe that! _

I groaned as I flopped down on my bed, stared at the ceiling and sighed.

Suddenly, the bell rang though.

I quickly got up and trudged my feet to the door as I slowly opened it a little.

I was surprised to see Naruto, looking seriously distressed.

I quickly opened it wider.

"Naruto!" I gasped. "What are you doing here?! Aren't you supposed to be at school?"

He groaned a little.

"Got suspended for something I didn't do," he mumbled.

I raised an eyebrow. "You too?! Er.. come in, by the way."

"Thanks," he murmured as he lightly pushed passed me and stepped into the living room.

I closed the door and followed him in as he flopped down on the sofa, lying down.

I sighed as I sat down on the sofa next to him and brushed his thick blond hair with my fingers.

"Naruto," I said quietly. "Tell me what happened."

He sighed. "First, tell me that you'll believe me. Second, you have to tell me why you got suspended too."

"Deal."

He hesitated for a moment.

"Well.. I was just doing the freakin' exams until that asshole plus idiot, _Suigetsu, _accused me of _cheating. _And I swear, I didn't cheat and - "

My eyes widened.

"Wait.. _what?! _You – you got accused of cheating too?!" I interrupted.

"Yeah and – wait.. what do you mean by '_too_'?"

"_I _got accused of cheating when I didn't cheat too! By Karin.."

"_Eh_?!" He blurted out as he quickly sat up straight and gazed at me, his sapphire eyes widening.

I nodded. "It's true.. that's why I got suspended."

"Me too."

Silence settled upon us as we just stared at each other, pondering.

Then, he _laughed. _

I scowled, annoyed.

"What's so _funny_?!" I demanded. "Here we are, suspended for something we didn't do.. and you're _laughing_?!"

"Sorry – it's just that.. ahahaha.. it's just that we were just staring at each.. ahah, hahaha.. other in silence and, hahaha.." he said between laughs, now rolling all over the whole sofa, knocking the pillows onto the floor.

"What the hell?! You're so immature," I cried, but I couldn't help but crack a smile and giggle as he continued to knock over the pillows and roll all over the sofa.

I stood up and picked up a pillow as I lightly smacked his side with it. "_Idiot, _stop throwing pillows on the floor, you're getting them dirty!"

But I chuckled a little until he suddenly pulled me in, making me drop the pillow on the ground, back where it was started.

I gasped a little until before I knew it, we were both squished together on the sofa – and he finally finished laughing.

We just gazed at each other.. again as he stroked my hair.

"Sakura.." He mumbled as he continued to brush it with his fingers. "Don't ever cut your hair.."

His cerulean eyes were pleading.

It was funny how we could be all serious one moment then laughing, then being romantic the next.

It was also funny how random we could be.

"I won't," I said softly as I leaned my head against his chest.

For now, I didn't want to think about school, the suspension, exams, Karin, or Suigetsu..

For now, I just wanted to think about us – Naruto and me.

–

**Naruto.**

"I can't _believe _it! Those _assholes_! I bet they planned the whole thing," Ino shouted.

"I know, right?!" I quickly agreed. "They both probably did that just to get us both suspended! What the hell is up with th – "

"_Guys,_" Sakura suddenly said as she rolled her emerald eyes. "_Please, _we're in a cafe. Must you shout stuff out? Especially you, Ino, who's _cursing _stuff out _oh-so-loudly_?!"

The blond girl snorted. "Who cares? There's no little kiddos around. You have such a maternal instinct or whatever they call it. You'll make a good mom.. you and Naruto can go popping up some babies any time now, you know," she teased, grinning.

"_Ino_!!" Sakura and I both shouted in unison as we both flushed at least fifty shades of red.

"I-Ino-chan, y-you shouldn't say that.." Hinata said meekly. "They're only in h-highschool.."

Ino chuckled as she nudged Hinata. "Oh _come on,_ Hinata. I was kidding! Take a joke, will ya? _Besides, _isn't it time _you _get a guy?"

She blushed. "I-I-Ino-chan!" She cried.

"Psh, stop picking on us all, Ino," Sakura said, finally back to her normal pale skin color.

"Why? It's so fun."

"Anyways, does your parents know yet, Sakura? About you being suspended, I mean," Tenten asked suddenly, moving the subject back to where we started.

She sighed, looking glum again, as she stared at her lap. "I don't know.."

She then turned to me. "What about your parents? Do they know? Speaking of your parents.. I've never see them.. did you get transferred here by yourself from somewhere like me or something?"

An extremely awkward silence settled upon us as everyone except Sakura gave me a gawking, _you-didn't-tell-her-yet?! _ look.

"Uh.." I said as I slowly slid down my chair, everyone staring at me, expecting _some sort _of answer.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Naruto?"

I swallowed.

_If I tell her a lie, all my friends will look down on me for lying to my **girlfriend **but if I tell her the truth.. I'm not ready to tell her the truth.. it's.. and I know that it's well, nothing bad that I did, but still..I feel uncomfortable telling her this. It'll become even more awkward and - _

"Naruto, is something.. wrong?" She asked hesitantly, now looking concerned, uncertain, and regretful of asking that innocent question. The way she asked it, she asked it like, _is there something wrong with your parents_?

"Uh, er, no..I, uh.. just.." I stammered. "They're.. they're not here right now."

_Eh, it's not a lie really, right? _

"Oh," She responded. But I could hear from her tone, she was totally not buying it.

What kind of an idiot would buy _that, _anyways?

It was way too quiet for comfort, and the atmosphere - my _God - _I couldn't _breathe. _

My eyes slowly shifted to Sasuke who was giving me a disapproving look.

I sort of shrugged my shoulders sheepishly at him and quickly turned away as I sat back up straight.

"Who's up for some ice cream?" Ino suddenly asked as she stood up, trying to brighten up the atmosphere.

I sighed of relief as some people waved their hands for ice cream and the atmosphere was back to the normal cheerfulness.

I slowly turned to Sakura – she was smiling and talking with Hinata, but I could tell there was a slight glint of concern and worry in her eyes.

I sighed inwardly.

–

"Does she know _anything _about you?"

It was a sudden question and it startled me.

The night was quiet and only a few people were wandering around. Sasuke and I were just walking along the sidewalk in silence, heading home after a night with our friends.

Usually, Sasuke and I were always walking in silence, it was just some ritual we did. Probably because he was so quiet. But if we weren't walking in silence, it was because _I _started up a conversation, _I _asked him a question, or something. He was never the one to be nosy about other people, and he was never the one to be too curious or talkative to strike up a conversation. It was sometimes frustrating, but it was also sometimes pleasant since he never asked things that you didn't feel comfortable answering.

So why _now _out of all times, and why _that question _out of all questions, did he have to ask and choose the time to become nosy?

I decided to play dumb.

"Huh?" I asked stupidly.

"Dobe, you know who and what I mean.."

"I don't."

"_Idiot, _answer me."

I sighed.

"She.. knows that.. I like ramen."

"Not stuff like that, idiot.. and anyways, _everyone _knows that. I'm talking about.." He paused. "I'm talking about your past."

We stopped walking.

I glanced at him but he continued staring down at the sidewalk, avoiding eye contact.

I quickly looked away and stared at the moon.

"Nope.. there's no reason to.. tell her," I said. "I mean.. what's the point? Besides, it's not like I lied to her back there."

"She's your _girlfriend, _idiot. She's supposed to know.. _about _you," he mumbled, in slight frustration.

I didn't say anything. Instead, I just kept walking along. What was it to him, anyways?

"I'll tell her.. but not now," I said.

He quickly caught up with me. "Why not now?"

I sighed. "Just not the time."

"_Idiot_!" Sasuke cried, glaring at me. "It's _never _the time, isn't it?! You're so carefree and you're always pushing things up to later, always saying, _I'll do it later.. _but you never do."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What the hell's wrong with you, man?!"

He heaved a big sigh. "I'm talking about why the gangs are always ganging up on you and you don't want to tell the police.. and I'm _not _buying the, 'oh I didn't pay back their debts' crap! I _know _that you got beaten up pretty badly again last month.. and I _know _that you didn't '_fall down the stairs_.' I'm not buying that shit either. I know you well enough.. I've known you for so many years.. you think that lying to me still works? I asked you.. I asked you what the hell was going on so many times, but time after time, you either told me a lie or told me you'd tell me later.."

We stood there in stunned silence.

"So.. _that's _what this is all about?" I asked quietly.

"I just wish you'd open up to me more," Sasuke muttered.

"Like _you _do," I scoffed.

"I admit, I keep most of my thoughts inside but.. you know everything there is to about me."

I turned away. "I don't feel like telling you right now.."

_Not just right now, **never**.._

"See what I mean?" He snapped. "You're always saying, _later, later.. I'll tell you later _and you never do. Well guess what, it's finally 'later' now, and now, it's time for you to tell me. Is it because you don't trust me or something?"

"It's not that!" I snapped back.

_I just don't want to lose you as a friend.._

"Then what is it?! _What the __**hell **__is it?!_"

There was a pregnant pause.

My hands were shaking in fear, and I felt a lump in my throat – I couldn't talk, my tongue was twisted as I continued to just stare at him.

His onyx eyes were hard, and pleading.

_Trust me.. trust me.. _they were saying.

I closed my eyes and swallowed.

"If I told you, you'd never want to be friends with me again.. if I told you, you'd_ kill _me."

He continued to stare.

"_Try me._"

* * *

**A/N: Uhhh.. XD; about the school suspension thing.. I didn't just add it just for fun.. I added it for a reason which you'll find out later (no duh.) **

**Psh.. Sasuke's way too OOC here. Like I said at the beginning, characters _will _seem OOC! :D **

**... yeah the title of the story changed for the umpteenth time..  
**


	18. Thinking Too Much Hurts

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Naruto.**

"I - " I began, swallowing.

"Hey guys!"

Startled, Sasuke and I both turned to see Kiba running towards us and as soon as he reached us, he made his way between the both of us and placed a hand on both of our shoulders, grinning broadly. Akamaru – his huge dog – bounded behind him and panted as he wagged his tail excitedly.

"What's up, dogs?" He asked, grinning.

Sasuke glared at him. "You chose a bad time."

He mocked a gasp. "I'm sorry, was I ruining your romantic confession, Sasuke-_chan_?"

Sasuke simple rolled his eyes for he was used to Kiba's teasing. I merely kicked his shins and scowled at him, not being able to take 'gay jokes.' Ever since Sasuke and I had been buds, we had been _so close _that people mistook us as 'gay lovers' which just annoyed the hell out of me. Sasuke didn't really care one way or the other though, being the nonchalant bastard he is.

"Shut up, dog boy," I snapped.

He snickered. "I was kidding."

Akamaru woofed in agreement.

"_Jeez, _Kiba.." Shikamaru's voice sounded behind us as he sighed and reached us. "You're so troublesome.. I told you that we should just leave them since they seem to be discussing something _important _and _private _of some sort."

"_Whaaat_?! I want to know too," Kiba whined, pouting.

I rolled my eyes. "It's _nothing_."

Sasuke sighed. "I got to go to the library and I got to go quick since it'll be closing soon, so I'll go on ahead."

"Bye, teme," I called as he walked off, without turning around.

_Whew.. I can't believe I almost told him though.. I owe these guys one, _I thought, relieved as I turned back to Shikamaru and Kiba.

"Stop grinning like an idiot," Shikamaru said, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Uh, shut up," I mumbled, quickly frowning

Kiba snickered as Shikamaru rolled his eyes, muttering, "_whatever._"

–

**Two weeks later..**

**Sakura.**

"Well, well, _well, _look who's here! The _scum _couple. Both of those who _cheated _on the exams! They're both definitely scum after all!" Karin scoffed. "Like boyfriend, _like girlfriend._"

Naruto and I both stopped at our tracks as we quickly turned to see Karin and Suigetsu, grinning smugly – the grin I knew so well – at us.

I glared at her, balling up my fists.

"Ex_cuse _me?!" I barked. "What did you just _call _us?!"

"Sakura.." He muttered, glaring darkly at them as he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Forget it.."

"Oooh, _what's this_? Naruto, _backing off_ of a fight?" Suigetsu grinned. "Could it be that little Naruto is _scared, _now?"

"You _wish, _asshole," Naruto responded, glaring. "I'm not ready to get into anymore trouble, that's all. Besides, I don't want to waste my time and energy fighting you – a _weakling _like you."

Suigetsu glared at us. "I'll _show _you wea - "

"Stop!" I cried, panicking, as I pushed the ticked off Naruto away.

"You can't pick up a fight right now!" I hissed, swiftly turning back to Suigetsu and Karin, then back at him. "Don't you understand? They _want _us to pick up a fight to get you in trouble again!"

"Don't worry," He assured. "I'm not going to fight him..besides you looked like you were going to punch Karin out any second, too."

"I know.." I responded sheepishly.

We were both quiet for a moment.

He looked at the ground. "I can't believe they called us that though.."

I frowned. "They're just ignorant jerks.."

He didn't say anything. I could tell he was guilty and regretful at the same time. He was wearing the same expression he had yesterday – when he hesitated for so long to tell me where his parents were. I knew that he was lying – from the way he looked nervous and worried and scared at the same time.

I knew that there was something I was missing about his parents that everyone else knew, but I decided not to push it. I decided that he'd tell me once he was ready to tell me.

I sighed as I pulled his hand.

"Come on.." I said quietly. "Let's go."

"Where are you going?" Karin taunted from behind. "Why did you come back to school?! Shouldn't you be ditching school and messing around, just like the scum you are?!"

I wanted to scream at her to shut up, I wanted to punch her, kick her, give her a _piece of my mind, _but I held it in.

Instead, I swiftly turned back around at them.

"I know that you guys placed those cheat sheets in our exam books," I said. "It doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

They both mockingly gasped.

I quickly turned around and squeezed Naruto's hand as we walked into the building before I could hear another word that they were about to say.

"Sakura.." He mumbled as we reached the lockers.

I turned to him.

He glanced at the ground and shook his head. "Sakura.. you're – you're being shunned and laughed at because of me."

"Shut up," I said, frowning. "I'm not."

"Yes you are.. ever since I started going out wi - "

"Naruto.." I said quietly. "Shut up. I'm not willing to let you go _no matter what._"

He just looked at me, then looked away as he slipped his hand away from my grasp and walked away.

I frowned at the ground. I wanted to call his name, hug him, and tell him that everything will be alright and that I was happy as long as he was with me.

But I just stood there.

I sighed as I gathered my books from my locker and turned to see Karin, raising an eyebrow at me.

"You're just as equally dirty as him," she hissed. "You both _cheated _and you both have such short tempers.. you're also _accusing _us of putting those cheat sheets in your exam books! How _dare _you?! We _both _know that _deep, **deep **_inside, you admit that you cheated.. I bet you're secretly a delinquent just like him, aren't you? I bet you were in some girls' gang some time back, weren't you? _You're both equally scum, like I predicted._"

And with that, she turned her heel and stalked off into class.

I just stood there, stunned with anger.

I finally shook off the feeling, and kept cursing at her in my mind, thinking of all the possibilities and ways to kill her in the most painful way possible.

Just as soon as I entered class though, I was suddenly greeted by a splash of cold water.

Blinking away the water droplets rapidly, I found myself _soaked _from head to toe – my paper soggy wet, and my textbook completely ruined now.

The next thing I noticed was the _laughter. _

I looked around the class and saw everyone.. everyone _howling with laughter_ at _me._

I also noticed that none of my friends were in there.

I glared at them, blinking away the tears and water dripping down from my hair .

"_What the hell_?!" I screamed as I clutched my damp books closer.

That only made them laugh even harder.

I suddenly felt myself being pushed down by someone and I was soon on my knees, my books sprawled out on the floor, soaking up even more water.

I felt my hair being pulled back by someone's grasp. The grasp was so tight, my scalp hurt and I felt as though my hair was getting pulled away from my scalp.

"_Let go of me_!" I screamed as I tried to turn around and stand up, but the person's grip was so strong, I couldn't even move my turn.

"You look _pathetic,_" An awfully familiar voice scoffed.

I glanced up and scowled at the oh-so-familiar redhead.

Her eyes twinkled mischievously behind her black-rimmed glasses as she held a bucket.

"What's.. what's that for?" I growled, glaring the bucket.

She nonchalantly glanced at the bucket in her hands and back at me, smiling _sweetly. _"Oh _this_?"

A few people snickered and giggled.

"This is a bucket of flour to pour on you.. but that's for the finale," Karin said sweetly. "First of all.."

I glanced around the room, floor, looking for something, _anything.. _to get me out of here.

".. how do you feel to be humiliated in front of the whole class?"

_My textbook? I guess I could throw it at her or the person holding onto me to quickly make a run for it.. but no, that'll only send me to the Tsunade's office for some more explaining to do.._

"Scum? _Hello_? You there?"

_Pencils? I could stab them.. er, not a good idea.. why don't we try something that won't work as violence?_

My eyes shifted from here to there, quickly and desperately.

And then I found it.

_Scissors. _

I quickly grabbed for the scissors without giving it a second thought.

"What're you doing?" Karin asked, her voice rising with panic.

I quickly opened up the blade of the scissors as the whole class hushed, staring at me, and I swiftly sliced through my locks with the scissors, causing the person holding onto my hair to fall back with a bunch of my locks in his or her hand.

I could _feel _the shocked silence as I felt and saw my wet pink locks fall onto the floor and on myself. Even I, myself, was shocked.

I felt my hair a lot lighter than usual, and my neck cool from not having to carry that pink curtain over my shoulders anymore.

I stood up swiftly, my scissors still in hand, dripping wet, as I glared at the whole classroom – at Karin mostly.

"You're _all _scum," I said as I spat on Karin's shoes and before she could react, I was out the door.

I stumbled out, my wet sneakers squeaking against the marble floors.

I quickly barged into the girls' room as I took a quick checkup of myself in the mirror.

My hair – it now hung up to the end of my neck.

I closed my eyes, remembering Naruto's words.

"_Sakura.." He mumbled as he continued to brush it with his fingers. "Don't ever cut your hair.."_

I opened my eyes again and continued to look at myself.

_I'm sorry, Naruto.. _

I frowned. I wasn't able to keep our promise.. but it was for the best, right?

I cocked my head to the side, continuing to stare at myself in the mirror, not recognizing the reflection as myself.

_Who is this girl? She doesn't look like me.. she looks depressed, she's soaking, her hair's too short and unevenly cut. And why is she crying..?_

–

"Sakura! Oh my _God, _I know what happened!" Ino screeched as she moved in closer next to me as the bell rang for class to start.

"Uh? W-what?" I asked uncertainly. It was third period, art class. We only had first, third, and fourth period together.

I had went straight to the nurse's office after my bathroom break to get a new change of clothes and had even been able to dry my hair too. It took up the whole first period so I wasn't able to tell Ino about what happened, not that I would. I would've probably made up some lie about gum getting stuck in her hair to keep her mouth shut around Naruto, but it appeared that she already knew the truth.

Ino heaved a deep breath. "Sasuke-kun and I went into class together this morning and we saw all your _hair _on the floor and I threatened to beat up Karin if she didn't tell me what the _hell _happened and she told us, especially since Sasuke-kun was there! Oh my _God, _that bitch! She even quickly cleaned up everything before Asuma-sensei came in! _Damn it_! I was _going _to tell him what happened bu - "

"Whoa, whoa, _whoa.._" I said. "_Slow down. _I'm _fine._"

"Oh my _God, _I can't believe that they actually threw water on you and laughed at you though!!" Ino cried.

I looked away, then quickly turned back to Ino.

"Please don't tell Naruto!" I begged.

Her eyes widened. "Are you _kidding _me?! He _has _to know!"

I shook my head. "He's been feeling really guilty these days.. he's been thinking that I'm now not as popular as I used to be because of him – getting shunned by everyone because of him.."

"Well.. it _is _kind of true."

"_Ino_!"

"_Sorry_!"

I sighed. "I.. I'm just afraid that he'll break up with me just for my reputation's sake.."

Ino rolled her eyes and sighed. "_Fine, _I won't tell him if it means that much to you."

"And tell Sasuke-kun not to tell too?"

She frowned, hesitated. "_Fine_.."

I smiled at her softly. "Thanks.."

"You're lucky Naruto's not in first period with us," Ino mumbled.

I nodded.

–

**Naruto.**

I gawked at her.

Her pink hair.. it was cut.. _short._

"S-Sakura?!" I stammered, gaping at her.

She blushed and self-consciously touched her hair.

"Uh.. hey Naruto.." She responded softly.

I stepped over to her, my eyes widened. "What happened to your _hair_?"

It was also unevenly cut – looked like she just ran a pair of scissors through her hair.

She smiled nervously. "Sorry.. I accidentally got gum in my hair so I had to cut it."

"What?! That sucks!" I groaned.

"Sorry, sorry," She apologized as she hugged me. "I'm also sorry for not being able to keep our promise.. you know, not cutting my hair. I'm going to grow it back, though."

I brushed her now short and stocky hair with my hand. I'd have to get used to this.

"It's alright.. I still love you.." I said, and blushed at the words.

I didn't say _I love you _a lot to her and was still new to this whole dating thing, so it was still awkward for me to do such romantic things. So I was glad that she was patient and understanding with me being slow at romantic stuff.

Hell, I hadn't even _kissed _her yet, and she seemed to still be content with where we stood.

"I love you too," she mumbled back as she wrapped her arms around me, cloaking me with warmth and affection.

–

Jamming my hands into my pockets, I was thoroughly relieved that the day was over, and also relieved that I was walking alone without any disturbance to my thoughts.

I was never the one to think too much, and I actually didn't like thinking at all.. I found it annoying so I often spoke and acted without thinking which was a pretty bad habit.

But there were times when I just wanted to be alone, and think about some stuff, and _this _was one of those rare times.

Today had gone pretty strangely and tiringly, if you asked me. Sakura had cut her hair in the middle of school, people were staring and whispering at us - mostly at Sakura.. probably because of the haircut and because of the rumor going around about us cheating on the exams which still annoyed me to no end, and Sasuke had been.. well, _avoiding _me. I thought that that was pretty strange since I thought _I _supposed to be the one avoiding _him _after what happened the other night. Of course, I had avoided him as he had avoided me but I couldn't help but wonder if Sasuke was actually giving me time to think my explanation about the gangs out.. or that perhaps now he felt awkward bringing up the subject. In any case, I was glad because I _still _wasn't ready to tell him yet.

Not now, not _ever. _

But I knew that he wasn't just going to leave me to be for too long. I knew that he'd soon pounce on the subject, thinking that he'd giving me enough time, and expecting an answer.. and I _would _have to give an answer as much as I didn't want to.

_Will he still want to be my friend? How will he react? Will he keep thinking about his lifelong goal of torturing whomever left closest to Dad and come at me for revenge? Will we become enemies from then on? _

I closed my eyes and sighed.

_Will he forgive me? _

I doubted it. Sasuke was not the type of person to forgive one so easily and even though I wasn't the one who murdered his parents, he wouldn't care. He never showed too much mercy. He would probably think that I was the same as Dad. He probably wouldn't hesitate to take his revenge right _there, _and right _then. _He'd probably pounce onto his avenge plan right after the truth spilled from my lips and would torture me for the rest of my life. He'd be _disgusted _to even think that he had befriended with the son of his parents' murderer.

_Damn it.. why do you have to be such a pessimistic bastard? _I asked myself as I finally reached home.

_I don't know.. I don't know.. I don't want to think about anything.. all this thinking makes my head hurt. I just gotta play by year, like I always do. _

_

* * *

  
_

**A/N: It's okay, Naruto. Thinking too much hurts my brain too. :) **

**Oh and I don't think that you can just run a pair of scissors through your hair so easily and suddenly you cut your hair, can you? I don't know.. never tried.  
**


	19. It was Your Father, wasn't it?

**A few more weeks later..**

**---**

**Chapter Nineteen**

**Sakura.**

Ever since the 'so-called-cheating' and the 'haircut' incidents, I became _arch enemies _with Karin. She'd do _anything _to humiliate me, and I'd do _anything _to get her _back. _

More and more people started looking down at me and more and more rumors and gossip about me fluttered around the whole school.

I definitely was not used to being the whole school's target of pure hatred, but at least I had my friends and Naruto. But even in my previous schools, I had been liked by almost everyone. Same with when I first came at Konoha High, but ever since I started going out with Naruto, they turned their heels and raised their heads high at me and Naruto.

I didn't really see what the big deal was though. He had plenty of friends himself, yet the rest of the school besides his friends and I seemed to shun him. I was basically being treated the same way as he was.

I admit, it bothered me a little for I wasn't used to being hated and shunned so much by many people and I wasn't exactly used to having an arch enemy either. But.. I guess that was high school, right? And anyways, I was able to survive especially because of my amazing friends, and.. of course, Naruto.

Naruto still didn't know the _real _reason behind my haircut _or _the fact that Karin and I were on _horrible _terms _or _the fact that we kept getting our revenge on each other. In fact, he was the only one in our whole group that didn't know, and I intended for it to keep it that way. Sure, he knew that Karin and I pretty much didn't like each other, but he didn't know _half _of the things we did and said to each other.

Karin and I kept shooting revenge after revenge at each other and it wasn't pretty.

If he had _ever _found out the real reason behind my choppy haircut, the horrible things Karin and I said and did to each other, and that Karin and I were on _horrible _terms, he'd instantly break up with me. I knew him too well. He was still shaky on the relationship and he was still worried about my reputation, but I didn't care too much about my reputation.

As long as I had Naruto, I was okay.

I just needed him, but he wouldn't believe me and would still feel guilty if he ever found out.

On happier terms, Sai passed the entrance exams for Konoha High and just recently came to our school! Ino was _psyched._ The two are _so _lovesick that all Ino can talk about is 'Sai this' and 'Sai that.' The girls and I were starting to get tired of her talking all day long about Sai nonstop. But I'm glad that they found each other.. they're definitely meant for each other..

–

_Ding-dong!_

I groaned a bit as I opened one eye.

_Ding-dong!_

"_Forehead, open up_!"

_Ding-dong! _

Blinking, I sat up slowly on my bed.

Only _one _person would call me that.

I quickly left my bedroom as I ran across the house and flung opened the door to see a widely grinning Naruto, fully dressed in winter clothes.

"Na-Naruto?!" I stammered, blinking rapidly as I quickly checked the clock hanging on my wall. It read six in the morning.

I peeled my eyes away from the clock as I scowled at him.

"What are you doing here at this hour?! It's Christmas break, for heaven's sake.." I grumbled bitterly.

"Hurry and go get ready. Got to take you somewhere," he said, still grinning like an idiot.

"Where?"

"You'll see. Now go get ready! We don't want to be late!"

I rolled my eyes as I swiftly left him at the doorway and went into my bedroom and got dressed into clothes that would keep me warm from the winter cold air.

I then left my room as I zipped up my coat and pulled my boots on.

As soon as I did, he grabbed my hand and led me out of the apartment as we made our way through the snow coated ground.

The chilly air stung against my cheeks causing me to fluster.

"Where are we _going_?" I demanded once more as I scowled at the blond boy.

"I said, you'll see. Damn, you're impatient," he responded with a light chuckle.

I sighed. "We'd better not be going to Ichiraku Ramen.. _again.. especially _at _this _hour."

"Don't worry, we're not."

"Good."

I then decided to take a good look around my surroundings to see if I recognized the path we were taking.

I did.

"Are we going to.. _school_?!"

He smiled.

"You catch on fast," he responded.

"Why are we going to _school _during _winter break_?" I demanded, frowning a little.

"You'll see," he replied in a sing-song voice.

I rolled my eyes.

We soon reached the school building and stepped inside it. The hallways were, for once, not crowded with shouting and laughing students and teachers scolding. It was completely empty and the only sound that could be heard were the soft squeaks of our wet snow-covered sneakers slapping against the marble floors.

He led me up the familiar staircase that led to the rooftop and when we reached it, he quickly glanced at his watch and grinned.

"Only two more minutes to go! Perfect," he said, continuing to smile.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Two more minutes until _what_?" I demanded.

"You'll see," he responded once more.

I sighed in exasperation.

Naruto squeezed my hand a little tighter as he pulled me towards the edge of the rooftop where we could see the scenery better.

Suddenly, a few rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon as the sky was washed with mixtures of blue, orange and purple.

It was a breathtaking sunrise just like every sunrises and they never ceased to amaze me.

Naruto cleared his throat.

I turned to him questioningly.

"Sai..." he said quietly. "Sai told me that you always wanted to see the sunrise with him.."

I stiffened a little.

My previous relationship with Sai was a bit of a touchy subject still for me even though I got over him.

"He said that you would probably want to see it with me.. alone.." Naruto continued.

I gaped a little at him and quickly shut my mouth closed and smiled a little.

"Yeah.." I said softly.

I leaned in closer to him and smiled.

"Thanks, Naruto.." I said.

A pair of cerulean eyes slowly turned to me and before I knew it, he leaned in and his lips softly touched mine.

I was surprised and ultimately _delighted. _It was the first time that he had _kissed _me. It was the first time we _kissed. _I felt like I was having my first kiss all over again.. except this one.. this one felt _so much better. _

Closing my eyes, I smiled against his lips.

I didn't want to compare his kiss with Sai's, but I couldn't help it.. Naruto's kiss was so _warm _and touching and it was filled with such _love _as cheesy as it 's was swift, rough, and didn't feel so exciting.

I wrapped my arms around his neck as I deepened the kiss.

To my disappointment though, we broke apart as we both looked away, trying to hide our blushes.

Biting my lower lip, I slowly turned to him as he turned to me too and I chuckled at him.

He grinned back a little and scratched the back of his head.

And at that moment, everything was just _perfect. _

–

**Naruto.**

"Her lips were softer than other girls," I said with a grin. "You ever kissed anyone?"

Sasuke rolled his onyx eyes at me.

"No. Do I seem like someone who would fall in love?"

"Well you should try it sometime!" I said. "It's the _best _feeling in the _whole damn world_!"

"Hn," was his reply.

Then he suddenly stood up from the mat he was sitting on the floor. (We were at his huge mansion that he was able to buy from the fortune his parents left behind unlike mine were able to leave behind.)

"'Ey, where are you going?" I asked.

"Bathroom," he said as he walked out of the living room.

I took another swig of my coke as I took a good look around the huge living room that I found myself to be so familiar with after the countless visits I took to his home.

Suddenly, I heard a low buzz of a cellphone vibrating.

I turned my head and saw that it was Sasuke's phone.

Knowing that he'd probably won't mind, I took the phone and opened it as I pressed it against my ear.

"_Hey Sasuke-kun, you didn't forget that date you and I are having tonight, did ya_?"

I blinked in surprise at the sound of.. _Karin's _voice.

"Wh-what?!" I blurted out.

".. _Who is **this**_?!" The girl I assumed Karin on the other line demanded.

"Uh..." I said intelligently. "I – it's .. it's Naruto.. Sasuke-teme's in the bathroom.. who is _this_?!"

The girl (I think Karin) scoffed.

"_Oh I see it's the Uzumaki boy.. the one who cheated on the exams a few weeks ago!_"

I clenched my teeth.

"I _didn't _cheat," I growled, tired of hearing people accuse me of cheating.

"_Yeah, yeah.. **sure.. **I don't understand why Sasuke-kun wastes his time being your friend. He deserves much better and cooler friends that an idiot like you._"

"Yeah? Well he deserves much better and cooler dates that a bitch like you," I snapped even though I wasn't fully one hundred percent sure who was on the other line.

"_**Excuse **me_?!"

"You heard me!" I said, practically shouting.

"_Why you - _"

"Naruto."

Surprised, I instantly turned up to see Sasuke darkly glaring at me.

"Uh.. heh heh.. hey teme," I squeaked as I slowly handed him the phone.

He took it and snapped the phone shut.

"Why did you answer _my _phone?" He asked quite calmly as he sat down on the mat.

"Uh.. well.. you were in the restroom so I figured I'd take a message for you?" I said, grinning innocently.

He rolled his eyes.

"_Anyways,_" I said as I frowned at him. "Are you going on a _date _with.. _Karin_?"

He stiffened as his onyx eyes slowly turned to me.

".. Does it matter?" He asked.

I gawked at him.

"_Eh_?! You _are_?!" I blurted out.

Sasuke looked away from me and calmly took a sip of his coke.

"What the _hell_?! I thought you _hated _her! And damn it, Kami, why _Karin_?! I mean, what the _hell_?! Out of all your fangirls, you chose _Karin_?! No offense, but what do you _see _in her? You _know _that she framed me and Sakura!" I started rambling on and on.

"_Naruto_," he said suddenly, still not looking at me. "I can take whoever I want to on a date. It doesn't concern you and it's none of your business."

I frowned as I stared at him.

Something was wrong. Sasuke wouldn't just take anyone – especially _Karin _on a date. Even if someone took the initiative to ask him out, he would always politely reject them. Hell, he was a freakin' _pro _at it.

I could so imagine Karin going up to him and asking him out, but I _couldn't _imagine Sasuke accepting the offer.

After all, he told me before, he disliked her more than the rest of the crew of his fangirls because of the horrible things she did and said to Sakura and I.

"Sasuke.." I said slowly. "What's the _real _reason you're taking Karin on a date?"

His eyes flickered in surprise for a moment but he quickly regained the cool blankness behind his dark eyes.

The Uchiha then stood up and glanced at me.

"Because I want to.. now I got to go get ready for the date," he murmured. "So leave."

I stood up slowly as I grabbed my jacket, used to his rude attitude, and took one last glance at him as I left the mansion.

Something was definitely up and I was positive that Sasuke wasn't just going to take Karin on a date because 'he wanted to.' I was pretty sure that there was some reason behind it – and I was going to find out no matter what.

–

"See ya," Sakura said as she leaned over and kissed me swiftly and smiled before turning her heel and leaving me a little dazed on the sidewalk.

"Yeah.. bye.." I said a little too late for she was already out of sight.

I then starting walking towards home, keeping my hands jammed in my pockets as I grinned the whole way.

Suddenly, a gang slowly appeared before me.

I stiffened with fear as all the happiness I felt earlier was drained from me.

Beads of perspiration slowly rolled down my face.

It was a gang I was familiar with – a gang that jumped me most frequently, the Akatsuki.

"Hey Naruto," the familiar blond boy, Deidara, grinned. "Missed us, _hm_?"

I clenched my fists as I glared at all of them as they took a step towards me and I took a step back.

The leader, Pain, stared at me in a blank glossed gaze as he finally said something:

"Get him."

All of them charged at me all at once with fists thrown at me and small knives slicing at me.

Gritting my teeth, pain seared through me as they punched and cut me through.

I was able to quickly knock a few out – but a few were still standing such as Pain, Konan, Itachi, and Kisame.

Before I knew it, I found myself on the floor, coughing up blood and suffocating as I felt their feet kicking my stomach.

It was the worst fight I've had in a long time and at this rate, I felt like I was going to _die _for real.

Suddenly Pain brought out a sharp blade as he placed it against my throat.

"Naruto Uzumaki.." he said stoically, his eyes staring blankly into mine. "I'll end your suffering here.."

_No! _I panicked as the blade was placed slightly deeper into my skin, causing it to tear and bleed a little over the silver blade that was once cleansed and gleaming.

_I can't die.. not now! I can't leave Sakura or my friends! _

Tears sprang up to my eyes as I tried to push his hand away from my throat, but my arms were held back firmly by someone.

Suddenly though, the knife was knocked out of Pain's hand as his body skidded across the sidewalk as if someone just took a swift punch at him. I suddenly felt the weight on my arms lift as my arms were free and Konan – the female member who apparently was the one gripping my arms – was pushed against the wall, knocked unconscious.

Dumbfounded, I turned to see who was helping me but my vision was starting to blur as I saw the vague outline of Sasuke.. or at least it seemed like Sasuke.

The pain started to numb as my vision blurred even more.

"Itachi.." the person who helped me muttered.

I couldn't hear the rest of what he said because I was soon swallowed up in darkness.

–

Opening one eye, I groaned inwardly as I felt pain knocking through my head.

I also felt pain dully slicing through me all over my body.

Remembering the gang fight last night, I decided that that was definitely the worst fight I'd gotten into with the gangs.

Sighing, I opened both eyes as my vision became clearer and I realized that I was in a hospital and Sasuke was at my side.

He had a few bandages covering his face and his onyx eyes slowly turned to me, blankly.. glaring.

We stared at each other for a few moments.

"How are you feeling?" He finally asked.

Pause.

"Alright.." I lied as I stared at the bandages covering his face.

"What happened to _you_?" I asked.

He scowled at me.

"I saved your ass during the fight with the gang last night, dobe," he snapped.

My eyes widened.

"Oh.." I said hoarsely.

Pause.

"I know why gangs are ganging up on you now."

I stiffened.

"I also happen to know why you didn't want to tell me.. and I also happened to find out who killed my family."

My eyes widened at him in fear.

_Please, no.. please.. _

His eyes continued to stare at me blankly.

"It was your father, wasn't it?"


	20. Mistake After Mistake

**Chapter Twenty**

**Naruto.**

It seemed at just that moment, time stopped.

At that exact moment, I felt like simply _dying _or just being _anywhere _but here. I just wanted to rewind time and change something – _anything _to make Sasuke to never ever know the truth. I just wanted to crawl in a hole and bury myself and I just wanted to make a run for it, running forever and never look back, never _come _back at all just like a foolish coward.

But I wasn't a coward and I wasn't going to allow Sasuke take me for one.

So I inwardly closed my eyes and hoped for the best because I knew that I couldn't run from explaining to him forever.. I knew, deep down, I'd have to tell him _sometime.. _that he'd find out the truth _sometime _and I would have nowhere to run or hide to and no one would come to my rescue by interrupting once more like Kiba and Shikamaru did just a month ago.

"Sasuke.. I... how.." I began quietly as I continued to stare at his hard, firm face.

He was staring back at me with his cold charcoal eyes.

I was taken aback for he never directed that cold dark glare at me.

Not once.

"How did I find out, you mean?" He asked stiffly.

I could tell that he was trying all his might to keep his composure from the way he was gritting his teeth, his voice shaking with anger a little, and his fists clenched into tight fists. His knuckles were as white as paper and snow.

"I.. had a nice little chat with Itachi yesterday," Sasuke continued. "If... if you don't know, he's my older brother."

My eyes widened in surprise at this.

_Brother?! Itachi's... Sasuke's BROTHER?! Wait.. but his whole family was destroyed in the fire --_

"I thought.. _everyone _thought he perished in the fire along with the rest of my family.. but yesterday, yesterday, he gave me the truth. I have to say, I was positively _shocked _to see him standing there, alive, with a bunch of gangsters and when I demanded for an explanation, he simply _laughed _at me. He said that _he and _your dad planned the assassination of my whole family _together. _He said that he was sick of all the rules the Uchiha clan followed - sick of all the responsibilities, of _everything _so he ran away from the responsibilities, rules, everything. He ran away and met your dad. Itachi said that as soon as he saw your dad, he immediately knew who he was - Minato Namikaze, the infamous wanted assassin. And once Itachi met him, he asked him to help him kill the entire Uchiha clan except _me, _and your dad _agreed.._" Sasuke said bitterly, his cold eyes continuing to glare at me. "Said it was an _honor _to work by your dad's side..."

My mouth hung slightly open at this as shock soaked me.

I didn't know _this _much.

I didn't know that Sasuke's brother was Itachi or that his brother was even alive or that his brother _helped _my dad kill his family.

But why.. _why kill everyone but Sasuke?_

As if reading my mind, Sasuke continued, "I didn't believe him at first.. I screamed at him, asking why didn't they kill _me _along with the entire family too... why didn't they just _kill _me too so that I wouldn't have to suffer alone. And do you know what he said? He said it was for my own _benefit _and he wanted me to grow up and live as a normal boy without any harsh rules that _he _had to go through.. he's _stupid_! Does he really think that leaving me, alive and alone, would help me grow as a 'normal boy'?! I'd rather live by harsh rules with my family... and yet, yet he _killed _everyone - the people whom I loved the most! But the worst thing is... the worst thing.."

At this, tears were rolling down his cheeks and I was surprised.

I had never seen him in such distress, and I'd definitely never seen him cry a single tear before.

"The worst thing is _I loved Itachi the most_! I thought I knew him... I loved him so much.. he was always there for me, and he was always sticking up for me and talking with me and understanding me. He was the _only _one who understood me.. but now I see, I see that those comforting words and soft smiles were merely a mask to cover up who he _really _was. I had _never _felt so betrayed in my _entire _life after he told me all that yesterday."

"Sa..Sasuke..." I stammered quietly.

"And..you..I trusted you... all my life, I trusted you and I never imagined that you would lie to me and decieve me and hide anything from me.. all my life.. I.. how could you _hide _this from me? You _knew_ I was searching for the answers _all my life _and yet because you were selfish and cowardly, you kept your mouth closed because you were afraid that I'd leave you after hearing the truth? How could you - "

"_I'm sorry_!!" I interrupted, shouting, as my own tears started to well up. "You were the best friend I ever had... I - I was scared that I'd lose you if I told you the truth. I never had such a best and good friend like you... you were the only one who really knew me so well and - and just the thought of losing a friend like you drove me crazy, so I couldn't tell you. I _know _I'm selfish and cowardly! _I'm sorry, I'm sorry_! I didn't think... I didn't think you'd be this mad if I never told y-"

"You didn't think I'd be this mad?! You're _pathetic_!"

He paused as he heaved a deep breath.

"Remember.. remember when I told you that perhaps our families dying was a blessing in disguise because if our families never passed away, we wouldn't have met.. I wouldn't have met you and we wouldn't have become best friends. Well I regret those words and I regret _ever _meeting you. _I wish we never met._"

My heart seemed to break at this and I felt like falling apart, but I remained calm as I swallowed back the tears.

"Sasuke.. I - I'm really.. sorry.." I said pathetically.

"_Shut up_!" He snapped. "Sorry isn't going to change anything! You lost my trust... and I don't think - I don't think I could _ever _trust you again."

And before I could say anything, he left.

And I realized that not telling him was only making everything worse.

--

**  
**For the rest of day, I didn't see Sasuke again. I so badly wanted to leave the hospital, but the nurses and doctors _forced _me to stay in bed which just frustrated me even more. Several times of the day, people - especially Sakura - would come to visit, but my thoughts would always wander off.. I couldn't help but merely flashback to what happened earlier and stress over it. I told Sakura and the others that I simply tripped over the staircase again since they didn't know about the gangs. I could tell that Sakura sensed that something was wrong from the way my responses to her questions were unusually short and I was uncharacteristically quiet for once, but to my relief, she didn't ask any questions about my strange behavior.

I realized that I was such an idiot.

How could I have not seen the idea that Sasuke would be even more offended if I didn't tell him about his family's murderer at all.. how could I have been so _insensitive_?!

All along, I didn't tell him the truth because I was afraid he'd take his revenge on me for my father was his family's murderer.. but that wasn't the reason he was mad at me. Sure, that may have been a small portion of the reason he was mad, but it was mostly because I had hid the truth from him - the truth he had sought for so much.. the truth _I _had known for a long time and always knew that it was his lifelong goal to know it.. yet, selfishly, I kept it to myself because I was a _coward. _

I wanted to go back in time and change everything.. I wanted to go back in time and tell him, tell him the truth.

Perhaps then, we would still have our friendship..

But now, because I was so paranoid and selfish and insensitive, our friendship was _broken._

How much dumber could I get?

The more I sat dully in the hospital bed, the more thoughts and worries raced through my mind, making me go _crazy._

I wanted so badly to run away - to run away from the _world._

But the only way to do that would be suicide of course, though.

And I would _never _consider suicide because I knew that it was selfish and cowardly escape.

I was selfish and cowardly enough.

I wondered if Sasuke's and my friendship would ever be patched up again.. I wondered if we would ever hang out at the school rooftop, drinking coke, and bickering about stupid shit again.. I wondered if we would ever walk home in comfortable silence, or call each other silly names again.. I wondered if we would hang out at his house and I would whine that his house was humongous and he would merely roll his eyes.. I wondered, I wondered, I _wondered.._

_I wonder if things will ever be the same between us again.._

"'Scuse me.." I mumbled as a nurse started to pass by.

The whole day passed, and evening was falling.

She stopped at her tracks and turned to me with a fake sweet smile as she replied, "Yes sir?"

"When can I get out of here?"

The nurse stepped over to my bedside, and looked over her notes from the clipboard she was carrying and glanced back at me, her fake smile still plastered upon her face.

"Tomorrow, sir."

"Can't I go now? I really do feel be-"

"Sorry, sir, but you have to at least stay another ni-"

"You don't understand! I feel _better._ I feel _fine_!" I was practically yelling now and I didn't even know _why _I was picking up a fight with her. "_Just let me go_!! I don't need to stay here!! I got to get out.. I _got _to get out of here."

"Sir, _you _don't understa-"

"Oh, I understand alright!" I snapped back, glaring at the nurse, irrational for no particular reason.

I could sense the whole hospital staring at us.

And with that, I started tearing off useless bandages covering my face and arms and left the rest on as I bolted out of my bed.

"Sir!" The nurse gasped, her eyes wide as she grabbed onto my arm.

But I shook her off.

Just as I did, a few more nurses and a doctor pulled and pushed me down back onto the bed.

"I know you feel _fine, _but you're not. You just need to stay here one more night, understood?" the doctor said calmly. "Your wounds need to fully heal."

He was treating me like a six year old.

I was acting like one too.

I bitterly spat on the hospital floor, causing the doctor and nurses to wince in disgust and surprise.

This bitter and sour feeling... I hadn't felt these before in a _long _time.

I hadn't felt this angry ever since..

_ever since before Sakura came into my life.  
_

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the wall as I wished for Sakura to be here.

At least her company was nicer than these damn nurses and doctors.

I knew that I was being irrational, but I didn't care. I was feeling bitter and regretful and stupid and insensitive and selfish.. I felt like I had to pour it onto something or someone. I couldn't just bottle up these emotions.

And I couldn't just stay here.

I waited until all the nurses and doctors were out of sight.

Looking around the room, my eyes overlooking patient after patient, I finally realized that the coast was definitely clear. There were only a few nurses at the counter, but they were in deep conversation about something and since I was a fast runner, it would be too late before they realized that I was making a run for it.

Grinning a little, I slowly got up from my bed, and just like that, I bolted across the hospital.

Things happened so fast after that.

There were screams and shouts and I could sense people chasing after me as I weaved through patients, trying hard not to knock into them.

As I did, I suddenly spotted a pink-haired girl in the hallway and before I whizzed past her, I grabbed her hand and pulled her, knowing that it was _her _for pink hair wasn't all that common.

"Naruto!!!" She screamed in frustration as she tried to let go and smack my head, but I was running too quickly and I started laughing.

I was laughing maniacally, and tears were streaming down my face as I finally reached the door to outdoors, and didn't dare let go of her hand as we ran and ran across the concrete sidewalk, my bare feet slapping against the ground, and the chill wind blowing all around.

Before I knew it, we reached an empty park and I came to a halt.

Panting, we both fell into a wooden bench.

"Naruto.. what.. what the _hell_?!" She gasped through pants as she scowled at me.

"Can't... stand.. hospitals.." I replied through pants. "Hate.. them.."

"Idiot," she grumbled as she rolled her eyes. "You _got _to go back."

I shook my head.

"You stubborn mule," she muttered.

We sat in silence for a while as minutes turned to hours and as we merely savored the silence and gazed at the dark sky.

It was starting to get really late.

Sakura then stood up as she turned to me.

"Come on, let's get you ba - "

But she was interrupted as an arm was wrapped around her shoulder, securing her neck firmly.

My eyes quickly slid up to see who the person was and felt my heart stopped pounding as I realized that it was Deidara.

He smirked at me as his fingers stroked her hair.

Before I could stand up and punch him, Sakura squirmed in his arms as she elbowed him _hard _into his stomach and he immediately let go as he clutched his stomach and scowled at her.

"You've got some strength there, girl..." he said bitterly, continuing to glare at her.

I immediately pulled her behind me as I pretended to be calm and glared at him.

"Don't you _dare _touch her.." I said, my voice slow and steady as he laughed at me.

"Who are they?" Sakura whispered nervously behind me.

I didn't answer her.

I suddenly felt Sakura slip out of my grasp and heard a small scream escape from her.

I quickly whirled around to see Itachi who placed a silver blade against her throat as he looked at me with his calm crimson eyes.

_Sasuke's brother.._

"_Let go of her_!!" I screamed as I charged at him, but I was quickly held back as Deidara slugged me hard.

I fell back on the ground as pain shot through me.

_Not now... not now.. just my luck.. I'm getting slugged when I'm in a vulnerable state.. and on top of that, they've got Sakura too.._

Panting, I tried all my might to get up only to get slugged again.

I fell back once more, feeling half conscious.

"_Naruto_!!" Sakura screamed as I saw her run towards me, but get slapped hard by Deidara, causing her to fall on the floor too.

"Sa... Sakura.." I grumbled, wincing in pain as I tried all my might to get up.

"Heh heh.. you're sure fragile right now, _hmm_?" Deidara said as he grinned at me. "You're lucky it's just me and Itachi.. if the whole gang was here, we'd have you and your girlfriend _killed _by now."

"Shut the _fuck _up," I murmured darkly as I glared at them.

"_You _- " Sakura spat as she got up and flew her fist towards Deidara.

He caught her fist though as a shocked expression froze upon her face, and a smirk upon his.

At this, I felt my anger instantly fire up and I got up with all my strength as I sloppily slugged him from behind.

He staggered forward a little and glared at me darkly.

"Why you _little _- " he began as he flew a fist at me.

I winced as I waited to receive the final blow but then I heard a loud, "_Stop_!" and before I knew it, Sakura flew in front of me, receiving the hard punch.

Eyes wide, I quickly caught her unconscious body.

"_Sakura_!!" I screamed as I tried to shake her awake.

But her eyes remained closed as drips of blood slowly raced down her forehead.

I fell to my knees, still holding her, and cried.

_Why do I have to be so stupid?! Why am I keep making mistake after mistake?! What the HELL'S wrong with today?! What the hell's wrong with ME?! I keep hurting the people I love most.. the people closest to me.. the people who are most precious to me.. so why can't I protect them?! Why can't I actually be a GOOD friend and a GOOD boyfriend?!?  
_

Tears continued to slide down my cheeks as these thoughts ran through my head and I cradled her in my arms.

"Enough..." I said quietly as I forced myself to stand up with the remaining strength left in me as I slowly lifted my head to them. "Enough... stop it.. stop.. please, just this once.."

_Just this once, I'll surrender and let go of my pride._

_Just for Sakura._

"Do you think we take pity, boy?" Itachi asked, his crimson eyes staring at me.

I ignored him as I staggered forward and pushed passed them, carrying Sakura's limp body in my arms.

_Got to.. get to the hospital.. _I thought subconsciously.

"Let's leave him," I heard Deidara's murmur from behind as I continued slowly on my way, my vision blurring. "He's no fun when he's fragile like that – and when he's not fighting back. C'mon, 'Tachi, there's better things to do then pick on sick people.. let's go grab a drink, or something."

Relief poured onto me as Itachi reluctantly agreed and I heard them leave.

I slowly turned to Sakura. The blood was continuously slipping down her face.

At this rate, she could bleed to death.

With all my might, I hurriedly raced to the hospital, my vision getting blurrier and blurrier.

_Can't.. can't faint now, Naruto! Got to at least get her to the hospital!!_

Soon enough, I reached the hospital and as soon as I set foot into the warm hospital, I collapsed, still holding her in my arms as darkness surrounded me.

–

The rays of sunlight blinded me as I opened my eyes and blinked rapidly, trying my best to clear my vision. As soon as I did, I realized I was in my hospital bed once more, and more bandages were covering me.

Groaning, I hoisted myself up and as soon as I did, pain shot through my head, causing me to lie back down.

Then I remembered.

_Sakura. Where's Sakura?!_

I instantly bolted up at this thought, ignoring the screaming pain in my head, as I quickly searched the whole room for her, but no pink-haired girl was in sight.

Pushing myself up, my bare feet touched the cool marble floor and I soon started to stagger across the hospital, looking for her.

And then I found her.

She was only a few beds away from me.

She was sleeping soundly with bandages wrapped all around her forehead.

Pain shot through my chest at the sight of seeing her like this.

"_Sakura.._" I said softly as I walked over to her bed and knelt at her bedside.

I gazed at her soft face that looked so peaceful.

Slowly brushing her pink hair with my fingers, tears stung my eyes.

_First Sasuke found out.. and now Sakura's like this.. my life's turning to be like crap now.. _I thought miserably as tears rolled down my face. _And listen to me saying this! I sound so 'effin selfish.. well, I AM selfish.. God.. what's wrong with me? I don't deserve Sakura.. she deserves a better boyfriend – someone who's not reckless or gets into gang fights because of his dad.. she deserves someone who's got money unlike me.. and yet, yet she still... loves me?_

I gazed at her and shook my head.

_I can't afford her to be hurt like this again.. once is enough.. I don't care if I keep getting beat up by the Akatsuki and other gangs.. but I can't allow HER to be, too because she's the most precious person to me.. _

I swallowed back the tears as realization dawned on me.

_The only way to do that though is to break up with her, though._

_

* * *

_

**A/N: Some of you may think that Sasuke's being the irrational one, but just try to think it from his perspective. He's been looking and searching for the truth Naruto knew all along and when he found out that his BEST FRIEND knew and didn't told him just because he was afraid, it got him pretty mad and his trust for Naruto broke.**

**Naruto's dumb.**

**Seriously, breaking up?! **

**Wow, Naruto, wow... **

**Oh and things happened too quickly, sorry. ㅡㅡ;;; I rushed things a lot and BLECK. Hate how this chapter turned out to be, whateverrrr. **

**BTW edited last chapter's kissing scene after a few ppl pointed out that that couldn't be Naru's 1st kiss 'cause he slept with other girls.**

**Damn it, I'm so stupid. XD;;**

**OH & CHECK OUT MY POLL & VOTE!!! :) I'm in need of more votes, hahaha. Just take a wild guess on my poll if you have no idea, okay? XD  
**


	21. Forever and Always

**Chapter Twenty One **

**Naruto.**

"Naruto... who were they?"

I cringed at the question. I knew who she meant. She meant the Akatsuki. It was the question I hoped that she would never ask but thanks to my 'amazing luck,' she did ask it.

We were both still in the hospital and I was sitting at her bedside. It had only been a few minutes since she awoken and she already pounced on the subject of last night.

I knew that this was the time.. this was the time to tell her the truth.. time to tell her _everything._

And so I did.

I told her about my whole past, about how I found out that my dad was Sasuke's family's assassin, about the reasons behind my 'so-called-falling-down-staircases-incidents', about the Akatsuki, about Sasuke's past, about how Sasuke just recently found out about my dad, about how our friendship was now broken... about _everything._

And she just sat there, taking in every word.

Just sat there, listening and believing every single word I said.

It was the first time.. first time..

_First time I ever told anyone..EVERYTHING._

Stunned silence followed after I finished.

Her emerald eyes were wide at me, still digesting everything I told her.

"Naruto..." she softly said, her eyes still wide.

She seemed filled with shock, sadness, and even _thankfulness. _

"Thank you.."

Eyes widened, I blinked at her in confusion.

"Thanks for trusting me and telling me all this.." she said and with that, she embraced me in a gentle hug.

"I'm sure Sasuke-kun will come back... he's just frustrated and confused right now," she continued.

While returning the hug, I hoped she was right, but I didn't fully believe her.

I pushed the thoughts away though as I savored the hug and enjoyed every second of it for it would be one of the last hugs I'd receive from her.

–

_**A few weeks later...**_

**Sakura.**

We had finally gotten out of the hospital just a few weeks ago and we both decided that we would keep our mouths closed about the gang incident. We decided that the reason for my head injury was that 'I slipped on wet floor and fell down' and that Naruto.. well he kept his usual 'I fell down the stairs' even though it was getting pretty old.

We were now at my place and it was getting late. We were watching some movie, but I wasn't paying any attention to it.

I was snuggled up by his side, my head resting on his shoulder and his arm wrapped around my shoulders, brushing my side bangs softly with his fingers.

I slowly eyed him from the corner of my eye and I could tell that he wasn't paying much attention to the movie either.

Grinning a little, I took the moment as I leaned over and kissed his lips softly.

The kiss deepened and before I knew it, I had pushed him down on the sofa and I was on top of him, our tongues dancing and soft moans escaping from us as his hand ran down my back and my hand ran through his unruly blond hair.

Everything just seemed blissful as we continued to deepen the kiss and his hand slowly slid under my shirt, caressing my bare back until he reached to the top when he started fumbling with my bra strap causing me to smirk against his lips.

Suddenly though, he froze as his cerulean eyes fluttered open.

"Sakura.. we can't.. we can't - " he began, but I silenced him by pressing my lips against his once more.

All I needed and wanted was him.. the want, the _need _was so strong..

He then pushed me away again as he gazed at me with tired, sad eyes.

"Sakura.. we can't do this.." he said quietly.

"Why not?" I asked, my voice dripping with complaint.

He shook his head.

"You're going to regret it afterwards.."

"I won't."

"Yes you are.. we're still only teenagers.. what if – what if you get pregnant or - "

"Shut up," I said quietly as I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. "I don't care.. I just want you right now.. please? Don't you.." I hesitated. "Don't you want me too? I love you."

I could feel him stiffen in my arms and I smiled a little as I kissed him passionately and he finally gave in as he scooped me up in my arms bridal style, kissing my collar line, and led me into my room.

–

**Naruto.**

_I'm the biggest idiot in the world. _

I gazed at her as I ran my hand through her hair and and traced her bare arm with my fingers and sighed.

It was morning and we were still in her bed. She was using my right arm as a pillow and snuggled up to my bare chest. It wasn't uncomfortable at all. It in fact felt... _nice. _

_But you can't deny the fact that it was amazi - _

_SHUT UP!_

I groaned a little as I slapped my forehead with my hand.

Yesterday was supposed to be our last date.. only, I didn't tell her that. I made it seem like everything was just dandy and that it was just like any other date.

I actually meant our 'last date' to be sooner, but the more I looked at her, the more I couldn't find myself to selflessly let go.

But yesterday before the date, I told myself firmly that yesterday would be our last date.

And no more postponing since I knew that I had to do this for her sake.

I finally gently lifted her and placed her head on her pillow as I hoisted myself up and got dressed.

I then quickly scribbled a note and left it on her bedside table so that she could read it when she awoke. It read: _Meet me at the school rooftop when you wake up. _

–

I silently hoped that she wouldn't come.. that some _miracle _would happen. I silently longed for another way out – an _easier _way out.

But then I remembered her pain-stricken and shocked face when the two gangsters surrounded us. I remembered her worried cry and her faint and the blood streaming down her head. I remembered her forced smile when she said, _"I'm alright" _in the hospital when I _knew _she wasn't alright. She wasn't alright at all.

It was because of _me.. _she was suffering. Because I wasn't strong enough.

Clenching fists, I swallowed back the tears.

There seemed to be nothing I could do right. I couldn't protect Sakura, I couldn't keep my friendship with Sasuke. Everything seemed broken now and soon, I would break Sakura's heart and she'd _hate _my guts afterwards.. after the fake reasons I'd give her for breaking up.. after I'd lie that I used her and never _loved _her at all.

I felt as if I was trading my soul to the devil for something more precious to me.

I suddenly then heard the quiet creak of the door open and I reluctantly turned around.

Ivory skin, light pink lips, emerald eyes, long eyelashes, soft bubble gum pink hair.

I took in everything as I willed myself to memorize her.

Her lips formed into a gentle smile as her eyes gleamed softly at me as she slowly stepped over to me.

_Don't get too close._

"Sakura," I said, continuing to stare at her.

_Just say it._

"Hm?" She asked as she gently ran her hand through my hair.

_Stop it... you're making it harder to tell you._

"I..."

_Just say it!_

"I..."

Her gentle smile, her soft laugh, her melodic voice, her painful punches, her stubborn retorts-

"What is it?" She asked, her brows starting to furrow with worry.

"We can't be like this anymore."

Pained silence followed.

Her smile disappeared as a small frown formed upon her lips.

"What?" Her voice was hoarse, disbelieving.

"I don't love you. Never did."

It was blunt, cold, hard.

_Don't believe me! It's not true!_

Her emerald eyes widened as she took a step back from me, her slender hand retreating from my hair.

_Don't let go. _

_Don't go._

"Wha..what? You're kidding right? Naruto, stop lying."

"I'm not," I said, the lying coming out easier and easier. "Don't you get it? I'm not the type who would actually love someone! You fell _hard _for my trap."

"Naruto..." she said, a film of tears stinging her eyes. "Stop it! Don't be like this, please."

_Don't cry._

_Please, don't cry._

I looked away from her.

I couldn't bear her tears.

"Leave me alone. You're annoying," I said.

_Whose voice is this?! It's not mine. _

_Sakura, don't believe me._

"We're over," I finished off as I quickly pushed passed her and left the rooftop.

I left her.

I left her, drowning in her tears as much as I wanted to run up to her and hold her.

Tell her I was lying.

Tell her it wasn't true.

Tell her that I loved her.

_Forever and always._

–

**Sakura.**

The pain was incredible. I never felt like this before.. never felt _this _hurt even when Sai cheated on me. Never felt so _broken _before.

I had fell so hard. Fell in love _so hard._

And it felt so... _real._

As he walked passed me, his eyes stoic and his face unreadable, my knees gave in as I fell to the floor and wept.

The tears just kept coming, slipping down my cheeks.

_This can't be true! This can't be true! Naruto's not the type... Naruto wouldn't do that.. no, no! I'm dreaming! This can't be real.._

_**"I don't love you. Never did."**_

_NO! You liar! You LIAR. _

_Stop.. there has to be another reason.. there has to be something else._

_**"Don't you get it? I'm not the type who would actually love someone!"**_

_Yes you are. You loved me, I know you did.. _

_What we had was so real. _

_Don't leave me._

_Don't._

_Don't._

_Why are you being like this?_

_**"You fell hard for my trap."**_

_NO! There was no trap... I wasn't one of those girls.. I wasn't one of those girls you used a long time ago._

_I thought you changed._

_I thought I was different!_

"_**We're over."**_

And for the first time, he wasn't here to comfort me. He wasn't here to wrap his arms around me and tell me everything was okay. For the first time, he wasn't there to wipe my tears away and make my troubles vanish.

And for some reason, even after all those harsh words that sliced through my heart,

I still loved him.

_Forever and always._

* * *

[PREVIEW OF NEXT CHAPTER]

**"Dobe, I got to talk to you.."  
**

"What're you talking about?! Hinata, I can't believe you're taking that _bastard's _side at a time like this! Is it because you _like _him or something?! Hinata, no offense but _open your eyes--_!"

_"Are you ready for the responsibility?"_

_

* * *

  
_

**A/N: LOL decided to do one of those preview thingies XD I stole it from _selandora. _Sorry, haha. (AND OMG is that _Sakura _yelling at Hinata in the preview?! :O you'll see..XD; )  
**

** Horny Sakura. ;) Haha I can't write lemons and anyways this is rated T, pff. I can't write emotional stuff either. Lolol it's not as "dramatic" and "depressing" as I wanted it to be... oh and yeah, they broke up. :| -dodges tomatoes- **

**Btw thanks to those who voted in my poll. I closed the poll so you can see the results. XD The results made me lololol, srsly. I'll also post my real age in my pro shortly just as I promised. **

**And Idk.. I don't like how both Naruto and Sakura said, _forever and always.._ reminds me of Taylor Swift's song even though the situations are pretty different, pfff. Whatever, whatever. **


	22. You're the Biggest Idiot I've Ever Met

**Warning: Sorta hypocritical Ino ahead. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the movies, _The Notebook _or _Click. _  
**

**

* * *

  
**

**Chapter Twenty-two**

**Sakura.**

"What a Christmas," Tenten murmured.

I couldn't agree more.

The girls and I were all at my place and it was the day before Christmas Eve. We had originally planned this 'Christmas party' on Christmas Eve but we canceled it after what happened with Naruto and I.. after all, if we were going to have a party, Ino and Tenten would want to invite their boyfriends and their boyfriends just _had _to be friends with... _you-know-who. _The party was originally going to be at my place, too, but once the incident occurred, we decided just to have a small sleepover and just.. _try and forget._

So far though, we were having trouble trying to forget and just hang out and be girls.

"I'm seriously going to beat up that dipshit!" Ino growled suddenly as she jumped up to her feet. "How dare _he_ do that?! After _all _you've guys been through! I can't believe it! I really thought you two were in love. Man, I thought that Uzumaki was finally softening up! But _hell, _this must've been just one of his little schemes!! _I can't believe he used you though_! What an _asshole_! I'm going to seriously _kill hi-_"

"I-Ino-chan!" Hinata squeaked. "I.. I do-don't think Na-Naruto-kun r-really used Sa-Saku--"

"What're you talking about?! Hinata, I can't believe you're taking that _bastard's _side at a time like this! Is it because you _like _him or something?! Hinata, no _offense, _but _open your eyes--_!" Ino began to ramble.

"Ino!" Tenten snapped, glaring at the blond. "Don't talk to her like that!"

My eyes slowly traveled to Hinata and my heart sank as I saw her milky eyes well up with salty tears.

Seeing Hinata's tears, Ino instantly softened up as guilt weighed upon her. She sank to her knees as she slowly crawled over to her and wrapped her arms around her.

"Hinata.. I'm sorry.." Ino said quietly. "Really, I didn't mean it.. I'm sorry.. I was just angry that he hurt Sakura when I thought they were so in love, is all.. I'm sorry.."

"N-no.. I.. I... I suppose I-I always tried to s-see the g-good in h-him.." she squeaked softly as tears slipped down her cheeks.

I could tell that she still had trouble believing that he used me though.

I had trouble believing it too and _honestly, _I didn't believe what he said at all. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking, but I had a feeling that _Naruto _wouldn't go _this _far just to sleep with a girl... would he? Besides, he was hesitant on sleeping with me just a few nights before.. wasn't _I _the one who made him finally give in?

"Alright girls," Tenten suddenly chirped up as she reached into her backpack and brought out two DVDs. "Which is it? _The Notebook _or _Click_?"

"Click," I immediately responded.

_So sick of love stories.. _I thought with a sigh.

And anyways, I was in serious need of a good laugh.

So then the girls and I settled into the couch as we laughed and joked and cried while watching _Click._

And just for that night, I was able to forget just for a bit, thanks to my amazing friends.

–

**Naruto.**

_This is one of the worst Christmases I've ever had._

Sighing, I jammed my hands into my pockets and glumly gazed longingly at a kid who was on his dad's shoulders and holding his mom's hand as they walked through the snow and two guys who were laughing and pushing each other around as they threw snowballs at each other and a couple walking hand in hand, the girl giggling sweetly and the guy grinning like he just won the lottery.

I groaned as I quickly shifted my eyes away from them and kept my eyes on the pale snow.

_I lost my family, best friend, and girlfriend.._

What more could I lose?

_My life?_

I scoffed at the thought.

"Hey."

Hearing the voice, my ears perked up, and my heart seemed to just come to a halt as I slowly turned and saw..._him_.

Raven hair, onyx eyes, pale skin, and a hard glum look.

".._Teme_?!"

The nickname just slipped passed my lips before I could stop myself.

It had been a few weeks since I've seen him and it felt like I hadn't seen him in _centuries._

"Dobe, I got to talk to you..." he said quietly, unflinching.

His expression was pretty unreadable. He was wearing one of those blank masks he wore whenever he didn't want to show his real emotions or thoughts and the mask hid his thoughts and emotions so well that even after all these years, I _still _couldn't see past it.

"Uhh.." I said intelligently, my eyes still wide, still not believing that he was actually _there _and _speaking _to me. "Sure..?"

–

An awkward silence surrounded us as Sasuke and I just stayed seated on a park bench as cold as it was.

Clearing his throat, he broke the silence first as he said, "Naruto.. I've been thinking and.."

Pause.

My heart was pounding loudly as I continued to stare at the sheet of white snow that blanketed the entire park.

"I realized that I came off as foolish.." he slowly turned to me. "I'm sorry.. it's just that.. I was in shock and I was furious and I felt the need to be angry at someone who was right _there _and you were the victim.. but I still am hurt that you didn't tell me something I always was trying to find out.. I thought that you would tell me things like that since I believed you were..."

He paused and swallowed.

"...My best friend."

Eyes widening, I slowly turned to him.

"Sa..Sasuke.." I stammered.

"I also realized that.. our friendship is too strong and we've gone through so much together and we have too many memories together to break our bond that easily. Ever since I left you at the hospital, I felt a little more hollow and I felt guiltier each day." Sigh. "It took a lot to make me come out here, searching for you... so I guess what I'm trying to say is that I still want you to be my best friend. I don't care if your father helped kill my entire family, and I got over the fact that you didn't tell me something I was trying to seek my whole life because I feel as if I would've done the same too. Anyways, remember when I said that perhaps our families passing away was a _blessing in disguise _a long time ago?"

I scratched the back of my head, trying to remember.

_**Flashback**_

"_Hey, Sasuke-teme. . ." I mumbled._

"_Hm?"_

"_Do you ever think about your parents?"_

_Pause._

"_Yes."_

_Silence._

"_Do you ever think that. . .maybe. . .maybe it would be better if – if they were alive?"_

_Pause._

"_I do think that sometimes. But I think it's for the best of me."_

"_Huh?"_

"_I think that. . .maybe them dying is just a blessing in disguise."_

"_A what?! Are those stupid crap books getting to your head?"_

"_Shut up, dobe. I'm trying to tell you something important."_

"_Okay, okay. I'm all ears."_

"_What I'm trying to say is that. . .like, for example, if our parents never passed away, we would have never met."_

_I thought about that for a while._

"_That's true. . ."_

"_And. . .if my parents were still alive. . .I don't think I'd be as independent. . .I – I want to be independent and I hate being dependent on people even though sometimes, just sometimes, I want someone to hold onto though."_

_**End of flashback.**_

"Oh.. yeah!" I said as I finished recalling the memory.

He smiled a little at me.

"I still believe that it's true."

And with that, I broke into a grin as he held out his hand.

"So what do you say, friend?" He asked jokingly.

I laughed as I shook his hand.

"Sasuke.. I..I'm _really _sorry," I said quietly after we finished shaking hands. "I didn't tell you because I was being selfish and cowardly--"

"No need for explanations," he interrupted. "I understand now."

Comfortable silence filled up as we enjoyed the chilled winter wind.

"So.." he began. "Where's Sakura? As I recall, their Christmas party was canceled, wasn't it? I thought it was for the couples to be together or something.."

I stiffened and looked away as I groaned a little inwardly.

"Uh.." I started. "About Sakura..."

Immediately sensing something wrong, he asked, "Did you guys fight?"

I swallowed.

"Er... not.. exactly..." I said slowly as I slowly turned to him.

He didn't reply. Instead, he merely quietly waited for me to continue.

I sighed.

"Okay, the truth is... when I was still at the hospital, I made a run for it since I was sick and tired of the damned hospital.. and I took Sakura with me as much as she scolded and hit me, telling me to go back into the hospital. We managed to get out and we were just hangin' at the park until two of the Akatsuki members came surrounding us," I began.

I was hoping he wouldn't ask which two Akatsuki members, but he did.

Avoiding eye contact I said quietly, "Deidara and... Itachi.."

I could feel him tense and his fists clench at the sound of Itachi's name.

"Go on," he said quietly.

"And..well.. they jumped us and it was pretty bad since I was still recovering and all and Deidara hit Sakura really hard..." Recalling the memory, a lump formed in my throat. "..and she got knocked out and blood was all over her head.. I was also pretty dizzy and even more wounded too but fortunately, they left us alone after that since they didn't exactly find it 'fun' if I wasn't fighting back and if I was in a vulnerable state... and, well... seeing Sakura all wounded up like that, made my heart break since it was because of what my dad was, she was like that.. since it was because I wasn't strong enough, she was like that.." I said quietly as I closed my eyes. "So then, for a few weeks, I've been trying to tell her that we couldn't be together because I didn't want her to get hurt anymore, but it became harder and harder to get the words out of my mouth since as cliche and cheesy as it sounds, I fell in love with her a little more each day... anyways, I-I finally _did _tell her.. but it was right after the night we... well.." I opened my eyes as I felt my face heat up a little.

"I see," he said, rolling his eyes. "Go on."

Silently thanking him that I didn't need to.. _explain, _I went on, "Anyways.. I told her that.. well, I told her I _used _her and I basically made it seem like I only went out with her for her body so that she would hate me afterwards and not try and make us make up."

Silence.

I slowly turned to him.

"Naruto..." he said slowly. "You know what?"

Surprised a little, I responded, "What?"

"You're the _biggest _idiot I've _ever _met."

I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks," I grumbled.

"I don't know anything about love," Sasuke said slowly. "I've never felt it before so I'm not exactly going to give you advice but I think you're hurting Sakura only more by doing this.."

"Sasuke, hurting someone emotionally is better than hurting someone _physically--_"

"You don't know that. Sometimes, words can hurt people a lot more that fists.. and anyways, _you _weren't hurting her physically. If you get stronger--"

"I _tried, _Sasuke!" I snapped. "For years and _years, _I've trained and trained to get stronger and _this _is the strongest I can be--"

"Who are you?" He interrupted, his voice stoic and hard and firm.

My eyes widened at him.

"Wha..?" I began.

"You're not the Naruto I knew. What happened to do confident, brave, _I-can-do-anything _attitude you used to have? What happened to the proud, boastful Naruto?"

I didn't know what to say.

He then stood up.

"Whatever.. it's not my place to tell you these things.." he said with a sigh. "And anyways maybe it _is _better for the two of you to break up.. I wasn't going to tell you this but.. people at school had been treating her real bad – 'specially Karin. I suppose you don't even know the real reason behind her random haircut at school, do you?"

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What're you talking about, bastard?" I demanded.

"On the day of her haircut, she stepped into class and the kids poured _water _on her and one of them held her hair as Karin humiliated her. Sakura was able to escape though by finding a pair of scissors and running it through her hair. That's why her hair was cut – not because some gum got stuck in her hair. If you hadn't been such an idiot, if you hadn't been so oblivious or ignorant, and if you _opened your eyes _more, you would've been able to see it. You would've been able to see what was going around with Sakura.. and remember when I said I was going on a date with Karin?"

Forgetting all about their date since so much had happened after that, I suddenly remembered and nodded.

"She had been bugging me to go on a date with her for so long and I finally agreed to go on with her as long as she stopped bothering Sakura though.. she agreed but after our date, I saw her and a few of her friends laughing at Sakura as Sakura kept on retorting things back.."

Sasuke sighed.

"I guess nothing can work on Karin.." he finished.

I groaned as I buried my face into my hands.

"_See_?! That's why our relationship would've never work out... we're too different.. she deserves to be with someone who doesn't get into gang fights, who doesn't have a bad reputation, who's rich..."

"Maybe," Sasuke interrupted. "But maybe if you weren't so cowardly and ignorant all of a sudden, your relationship would be stronger. Are you ready for the responsibility, though?"

I didn't say anything.

He jammed his hands into his pocket.

"Whatever, I'm off now. I'll see you around," he said as he trudged his feet through the blanket of snow but then he came to a halt as he slowly turned around and smirked as he said, "Merry Christmas."

With that, he left.

I sighed.

_Maybe Sasuke's right.. maybe I'm acting too stupid and cowardly right now.. but.. I don't know – even if Sakura and I got back together, wouldn't that be too prideful of me? Too selfish? What if a gang gangs up on her? What if..._

I sighed as I groaned.

Maybe I got my friend back, but I was still having a pretty bad Christmas.

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[PREVIEW OF NEXT CHAPTER]

"**You're kidding, right?! You're not... are you?!"  
**

"Th-the truth is... w-well, I-I'm actually not supposed to tell you this, b-but I know that you still love Sakura-chan, so..."

"_You just missed her."  
_

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**A/N: -killed-**

**WHEN WILL THE DRAMA ENDDD~~?!  
**


	23. I Need to Find My Way Back to the Start

**A/N: Read, please! I know that in the beginning, I said Sakura was from Indonesia. ROFL I have no idea why I wrote Indonesia... and no, I'm not Indonesian or whatever, but anyhow, I now changed it to Suna to sound a little more... realistic?? XD; **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the song, _Into Your Arms _by the Maine.  
**

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**Chapter Twenty-three**

**Sakura.**

"Hey Mom," I said as I forced a weak smile - even though I knew she wouldn't be able to even see – and clutched at the phone in my hand tightly.

"_Hey sweetheart_," my mom said softly and I could almost hear the soft gentle smile against her lips as a wave of homesickness washed over me. "_Merry Christmas, honey_."

"You too," I said softly.

Pause.

"Mom..?" I began a little hesitantly.

"_Yes?_"

I swallowed.

"Do you think I could come over for Christmas?"

"_Honey! How could you even __**ask **__that?! You're __**always **__welcome here, dear. Are you really thinking of visiting for Christmas?! I thought you said you had plans and would visit on New Years instead,_" Mom said quickly, her voice rushing with excitement and hope.

I almost chuckled at her excitement.

"Well.. I _was.._ but.." I paused as I swallowed. "Plans changed.. and.. I guess I really miss you and Dad," I said, my voice in a joking tone but I knew that she knew I was pretty serious.

I could hear her light gentle chuckle on the other line.

"_We miss you too, Sakura.. and we'd be overjoyed if you came over for Christmas._"

I smiled.

"Thanks, Mom.." I said softly.

"_More like thanks to you!" _She teased with another light chuckle. "_Anyways, how are you, honey? You're a little quiet on the phone today... everything going alright? How are you and Naruto getting along?_"

A small lump formed in my throat as I closed my eyes.

Trust my mom to detect the slightest thing wrong with me and ask all the things I didn't want to be asked.

"I'm just tired, is all," I lied. "And everything is going _fine."_

I ignored the question about Naruto and me.

"_You sure?_"

"Yes, yes.. jeez, Mom, you're a bit _too _observant, you know?"

"_Haha, I suppose you're right, but that's what moms do."_

Pause.

"_Oh great.. I got to go, sweetheart. I have to pick up your uncle and aunt. They're staying over for Christmas too."_

"Oh okay. See you on Christmas, Mom. Tell Dad I miss him and I'll see him soon, okay?"

"_Sure thing. I'll see you tomorrow."_

"Kay, bye."

And with that, we hung up.

Sighing, I just stood there for a moment before I pulled my coat and scarf on as I headed outdoors.

–

"I...I'm leaving Konoha.. for good," I said hesitantly as I bit my lower lip and awaited for their response.

"You're kidding, right?! You're not... are you?!" Ino cried frantically as she slammed her hands down on the table and her sapphire eyes widened at me in horror and panic.

Wincing, I sighed and shook my head.

"Ino," I said quietly. "I just can't.. I just can't _stay _here anymore.."

"Sakura..." Tenten said softly, gazing at me with sympathy and worry. "Yes you can. Time will heal.."

"I know, I know.. but.. but I don't know what I'll be able to _do _when school starts again and I have to face Naruto in the hallways, in classes, at _lunch – _especially since we all sit together... I know I'm being weak and cowardly right now, but I just _can't _face him anymore.. I mean, wouldn't _you _feel the same if you and Neji broke up?"

She didn't say anything at that.

"But _Sa-ku-ra_!" Ino groaned, sounding out all the syllables in my name. "I know that at first, things will be awkward between you and Naruto, but if you just give it time, I'm sure things will loosen up and you two will be able to be friends again... if not, then the awkward tension would at least soon loosen up. C'mon, Sakura.. running away isn't the solution."

Biting my lower lip down hard, I said, "You're right. Running away is never the solution... but just please try and understand? I mean... I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be away _forever. _And anyways, another reason for me leaving is so that I can have a fresh new start and become a stronger, better and smarter person... I'm sure that I'll come back _some time _though and mark my words, when I _do _come back, I'll be stronger, better and smarter."

Ino snorted and rolled her eyes but as she did, a few tears stung them.

"Do your parents know you're coming back home permanently yet?" Tenten asked softly.

I swallowed.

"They think I'm just coming over for Christmas... not for permanency.. I was _going _to tell my mom that I was coming back for good, but the words just wouldn't come out..." I said quietly.

Pause.

"And..." I said hesitantly. "Don't tell Naruto... please."

The girls exchanged looks as they finally agreed.

"I'll miss you, Sakura-chan..." Hinata spoke up softly as slow tears rolled down her cheeks.

"_Aw, _Hinata..." I said quietly as I pulled her into a tight hug, making me tear up too. "I'll miss you too..."

"Hey what about me?!" Ino cried as she threw her arms around us and choked out, "You'd _better _keep your promise and come back... and you'd _better _keep that other promise too – the one where you said you'll come back to be a stronger, smarter, and better prson!" Ino tried to joke but her tears just ruined the whole joking effect.

"I'm going to miss you like heck too, Sakura," Tenten said as she hugged my shoulders from behind and I could feel her tears soak up my sweater. "Keep in touch, okay?"

"Definitely." I smiled through the tears.

–

It was finally Christmas morning and clutching my suitcase, I gazed at the sunrise.

I was alone at the school rooftop, breathing in the chilled air.

This would be my last moment here, at the school rooftop, and strangely enough, I just realized that I had a _ton _of memories only just at this stupid rooftop.

This was the place where I first talked to Naruto, where we always hung out, where we got stupidly locked in, where he comforted me when I found out that Sai cheated on me, where he asked me out, where we first _kissed..._

Closing my eyes, I swallowed.

_And where we broke up._

I sighed as I shook my head quickly and opened my eyes.

A small part of me was asking if I was really making the right decision and I honestly didn't know. I knew that I was being weak and cowardly, but I felt like this was right... sort of. I just needed to get away, at least for a while.. at least until I became stronger and happier.

At least until I got over _him. _

_Well, I guess this is goodbye, rooftop, _I thought in an over exaggerated tone as a joking smile crept upon my lips and my grip on my suitcase tightened.

Walking backwards, I took one last look at the sunrise until I bumped into something... or _someone._

Startled, I quickly turned around to see _Naruto._

My heart pounding loudly, my mouth slightly open as my eyes blinked rapidly.

"Na-Naruto!" I blurted out, stammering.

He looked just as surprised to see me here.

His eyes slowly traveled to my suitcase and I felt the color drain out of my face.

He slowly turned back to me.

"Uh... hey..." he said awkwardly.

An uncomfortable silence fell upon us.

"Well, I better get going... " I mumbled as I pushed passed him.

"Wait," he quickly said.

I stopped as I pursed my lips, but didn't turn to him.

"Are you going somewhere?"

Pause.

"Y-yeah..." I said softly, still not facing him. "I'm going to visit my family for Christmas."

_It's not technically a lie, _I told myself.

"Oh..okay," he said softly.

I could tell there was something else he wanted to say, but he didn't say it.

"See you, then.." he said awkwardly as I could feel him turn back around.

Holding my breath, I cautiously slowly turned around and took in one last glance at him, his back towards me as he jammed his hands into his pockets and gazed up at the sky.

Sighing, I turned back forward.

_Bye, Naruto._

–

**Naruto.**

The chilled air surrounded me as I groaned a little and pressed my back against the cold wall and slid down, sitting on the floor.

I frowned as I continued to gaze at the scenery.

I was still digesting in what Sasuke advised and told me, and I still didn't know what to do. I was arguing with myself back and forth. Sometimes, I wanted to run up to her and tell her the whole truth and ask to be with her again because I knew that I could be stronger now.. but for some reason, something held me back and I didn't know what it was.

"Na-Naruto-kun..." a timid voice interrupted my thoughts.

Blinking rapidly, I turned to see who it was and saw Hinata shyly stepping up to me.

Even though I hung out with Hinata a lot, we never really talked much together and we never hung out together..._alone. _I always liked her and I suppose I always considered her as a friend but we weren't ever really too close even though she was sweet and gentle and overall, a pretty nice girl. We never had a one-on-one talk before and most of the time, whenever I would greet her, she would blush and stammer.. I'm not exactly sure why though. Sure, she blushed and stammered when she talked to other people, but she seemed to do it more so frequently when she was around me or talked to me... was I really that scary or something?

"Oh hey Hinata," I said as I forced a small grin but it quickly disappeared as I realized that she was one of Sakura's best friends and so she must've heard that I 'used Sakura' and must have hated my guts now. "Er... what brings you here?"

_Maybe she's here to kill me or something, _I thought but only laughed inwardly at the mere thought of trying to picture Hinata going rabidly angry and killing me.

She hesitated as she swallowed.

"Th-the truth is..." she said quietly. "W-well, I-I'm actually not supposed to tell you this, b-but I know that you still love Sakura-chan, so..."

My eyes widened at her.

Noticing my surprised response she said, "N-Naruto-kun, I know that you didn't use her... I know that th-there was a different reason you broke up with Sakura-chan... I'm not sure what the reason is, but I can tell that you still love Sakura-chan very much."

My heart seemed to do a back flip.

_How does she know?! _

"Hi-Hinata..."

"The truth is, Naruto-kun..." she said, not stammering anymore as she gazed at me with firm confidence which surprised me and took me aback a little. "I always loved you and always thought that perhaps I could change you into someone with better habits.. I always thought that _I _would be the one.. but I suppose it wasn't me, because it was Sakura-chan, wasn't it?"

Shock overwhelmed me.

_What?!  
_

"When I first heard that you and Sakura-chan got together, I was heartbroken but not surprised. I knew that you loved her from the way you two always stayed close together and the way you would laugh and playfully argue with each other.. I was jealous of that. But as time went on, I grew happier for you two, that is until you both broke up... Naruto-kun, even though we never talked together much before, I know you quite well.. I know that you love Sakura-chan and I'm actually not supposed to tell you this, but Sakura-chan is leaving for good..." Hinata said, her voice now clear and crisp.

My heart seemed to stop pounding.

"Wh-what?!" I blurted out.

"I was going to say one last goodbye to her at the airport today but I did so earlier today so that I could tell you about this.. Naruto-kun, if you don't want to lose Sakura-chan for good, then you have to stop her from leaving right now.. she's leaving because she's..." she paused. "Because she's weak and cowardly.. and I believe that you were too."

I was shocked at her insults.

I had _never _heard Hinata insult someone.

And how could Sakura be leaving forever?!

Didn't she just say she was only going to visit her family for Christmas--

_She lied._

"But I know that deep down, you two are much stronger than this so I want you to go and stop her now if you really love her.. I don't want you both to regret something over something so stupid," Hinata continued as she continued to gaze at me with her milky wide eyes.

And that was enough to get me going.

Standing up so fast, I quickly ran to her as I pulled her into a tight hug and whispered, "_Thank you_" before I ran off, bolting down the staircase.

_There was a new girl in town..._

Everything happened so quickly and everything was a blur from then on.

_She had it all figured out (had it all figured out)_

I remember running into a taxi and then reaching the airport, and bolting into it so fast and pushing passed people.

_Well I'll state something rash.._

All along, my head was spinning, my mind was racing.

_She had the most amazing... smile_

"_**I know you quite well.. I know that you love Sakura-chan and I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Sakura-chan is leaving for good..." Hinata said, her voice now clear and crisp. **_

_I bet you didn't expect that..  
_

"_**Naruto-kun, if you don't want to lose Sakura-chan for good, then you have to stop her from leaving right now.. she's leaving because she's..." she paused. "Because she's weak and cowardly.. and I believe that you were too."**_

_She made me change my ways...  
_

"_**But I know that deep down, you two are much stronger than this so I want you to go and stop her now if you really love her.. I don't want you both to regret something so stupid."**_

_With eyes like sunsets, baby_

_And legs that went on for days  
_

Panting, I searched and searched until I finally spotted Ino, Tenten, and Sasuke.

Ino whirled around in surprise at me.

_I'm falling in love, but it's falling apart_

_I need to find my way back to the start_

"Naruto!!" She gasped.

The others turned around too.

_When we were in love, things were better than they are_

I quickly ran to them, searching for a pink-headed girl.

_Let me back into..._

"Where is she?!" I demanded, sweat pouring down all over me as I panted. "Where _is _she?! _Where's Sakura_?!?"

Silence fell upon us as finally Sasuke looked up at me, his face grim.

_Into your arms..._

"You just missed her. She just left for her flight," he said quietly.

And at that moment, I felt my heart shatter and I felt myself becoming crushed from regret after regret..

_Into your arms..._

_

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**No previews this time.  
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	24. Graduated from Poo

_**One and a half years later...  
**_

_**--**_

**Chapter Twenty-four**

**Naruto.**

"_Finally_!!" I exclaimed as I punched my fist into the air. "_We've FINALLY graduated from this shit_!!"

It had been an year and a half ever since Sakura left and I haven't seen her since. At first, when I found out that I was just a little too late and she was already on her flight, I was so ready to take the next plane and go get her but I didn't. First of all, I didn't exactly have the money for a plane ticket. I know that I could've borrowed some money from my friends and paid them back later but I wasn't really sure _when _I'd be able to pay them back.. I wasn't exactly the most responsible person when it came to paying debts. I know that that wasn't really a problem since I knew I would _somehow _pay them back, but I still didn't want to borrow money. I wanted to be as independent as possible.

Second of all, I knew that she was leaving for a misunderstanding and that if I chased after her, I'd probably get her back but I felt like I had to stay here. I felt like I just needed to give her some space and something told me that being apart for a bit may do some good. Of course, I was devastated and I longed for her every single day as a weight of regret and guilt burdened my back each day but the weight started pushing off, and as cliche as it sounds, the days began to seem a little brighter. I was still sad over the fact that she left, and I still missed her, and I still love--

Wait, I was _not _even going to go _there._

Just thinking about it made my heart hurt like _hell _and the weight would come back and sometimes, I'd even break into tears.

I know, I'm such a wuss.

But as the months went by, I slowly regained my old self again. My horrible habits of drinking and such were long gone though, fortunately. I just regained my cocky, smartass, prideful, confident and clown attitude that I had and I think I actually began to _mature _a little.

Just a _little _though.

"Shut it, dobe!" Sasuke hissed as he jabbed his elbow into my side. "You don't want the _teachers _to hear, do you?!"

"Who _cares_?!" I cried loudly as I laughed. "They're not _my _teachers anymore!!"

And with that, I laughed maniacally.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"You still act like a stupid thirteen year old after all these years..." he muttered. (Apparently, my friends didn't see the new teensy 'maturity' in me that I saw... sort of.)

"Hey, you coming to Ino's 'we-just-graduated party' or whatever she calls it, tonight?" I asked, ignoring his statement.

He shrugged.

"You know that I'm not much of a party person.." he muttered.

"Pshh, you can say _that _again," I said as I pushed open the familiar door and we headed up the staircase.

"Can't believe we've _finally _graduated though! Damn it, the last two years were like living _Hell. _Those damned teachers sure know how to torture their students perfectly," I grumbled.

Sasuke snorted as we finally reached the school rooftop and I ran to the edge and stretched as we both sat down and just chilled.

I closed my eyes and lied down as I felt the light breeze.

This felt good, this felt good.

Just sitting on the school rooftop with your best friend, drinking coke, feeling the breeze.

What else could be more relaxing than that?

I was enjoying the relaxation until I heard footsteps lightly clack against the floor of the rooftop.

Groaning a bit, as I sat up and turned around, I grumbled, "Oi this is our--"

But I stopped mid-sentence as my eyes widened at the sight of... _her._

_What the..? Could it be..?! No way--_

"_Territory_?" The girl finished, a smile creeping up her lips as she closed the door behind her.

Bubblegum pink hair, emerald eyes, ivory skin, glossed smiling lips, and a forehead that was a bit _too _big.

It was _unmistakable _that it was her.

_Sakura Haruno._

**- The End - **

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**A/N: AHHDSFSFGDJGFHDFG -RUNS AWAY FROM RABID ANGRY WTFing READERS-**

**ASDJFHIFDGIFD I CAN EXPLAIIIN!! DDD8**

**OK, OKAYYYY. I know that most of you are probably seriously being all: "WTF?! THIS IS THE END?! THIS CAN'T BE THE END!!! THIS STORY SUCKS BIG OLD HAIRY BALLS!" right now, but guess what? YES I CAN! **

**...-shot-**

**Uhh, well..I had trouble with this chapter. I honestly was stuck after chapter 23.. I didn't know what to do, lolololol. XDD Yeahhh I had no idea what I was going to do for this chapter..pshh, I suck, I know. I didn't even know that this was going to be the last chapter because I had a lot of other alternatives I had in mind.. it was so damn frustrating! I seriously typed up about a dozen alternatives, then erased one, rewrote another one, erased THAT, and rewrote ANOTHER one, and... well, you know the drill. **

**And I guess I finally decided on _this _one... though I'm still not so confident on it, ahhahahaa. I know I'm soooo lame -__-;; my ending sucks, whatever. I don't care! DX Don't kill me!!!  
**

**I had a lot of sadder endings in mind, so just be glad that I posted one of the...er _happier _ones, I guess...;; **

**Ughhh yeah I'm the type of author that likes to leave my readers hanging and imagining themselves about what happens next when I end a story.. (like for example my _Unsent Letters _and _What More Could Go Wrong? _and _I Kissed a Boy_ ((well not really for that one, but sort of)) oneshots which are the only stories so far that are completed... except for this one, that is.) **

**Okay just in case though, I have a poll up on my profile and the question is: _Should I make a sequel to Two Worlds Collide?_**

**It has crossed my mind to make a sequel, but eh.... but if a lot of people want me to, then I'll seriously consider it.. and if not, I won't really consider it at all most likely. I hope that makes some of you happier?? XDD  
**

**Hopefully some of you actually LIKE this ending?  
**

**-shot-**

**P.S. Did any of you sense the deja-vu moment from ch.1 for this ch? ;)  
**


	25. AN:EDIT2 PLZ READ

_Alright, _hey people.

-dodges tomatoes-

_Ahem, _first of all, I guess I'd like to apologize, hahaha. A lot of you were really pissed with the ending, as I predicted. I'm really really sorry. ^^; I'm sorry for disappointing a lot of you with this story and with the ending and such, I really am, lol. And also sorry for getting back to you guys so late even though I _did _reply to pms. I meant to write this author's note earlier, _but _a lot of things kept coming in the way and lots of outbursts happened, blahblahblah. My summer vacation is pretty busy-- _okay, getting offtopic here. _So I _finally _found the time to sit down and type this. XD And apparently, some of you actually liked the ending. :D Yay, thanks, lol.

Okay, about the sequel. Since so many of you want a freakin' sequel (God, only 3 people voted that a sequel was not necessary.) I _will _make one. The basic story outline is in my head, but I probably won't get to it soon.. I'm pretty busy these days and yeah. (And also, if any of you are following my other stories, they're pretty much dead and not updated very frequently either.) _Sorry. _I'll get to the sequel and also my other stories asap. :] Hope that loosens your nerves. XDD;;

Well, I hope you all have a great summer vacation. Thanks _so much _for the much support on this story and _I'm really sorry _for the ending that most of you absolutely hate, haha. Really, really sorry and thank you so much – especially to **uzukun7** who was the only reviewer/reader from the very beginning of the story to the very end. :)

Well, over 'n out.

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**EDIT: **GUYS, I posted a poll up on my profile. So one day, my friend suggested to me that I should make Sakura have given birth to Naruto's baby because of the incident before they broke up, aheeem. But I don't know. D: There were some pros and cons to the suggestion but I'm not sure. So I decided to get YOUR opinions! (: Majority wins, as always. So please, PLEASE go vote if you want me to submit the sequel faster! I feel really agh for asking you guys a question about what I should do with the story. =\ After all, I am the author. I'm sorry for troubling you guys. D: I know I should be able to make my own desicions, but I really need to hear your opinions~!

Oh and please don't take this story off your alerts list YET. I will edit this author's note once more when I upload the sequel so you'll know whe. :) If you want to see progress in the sequel (and on other stories) click on the homepage link on my profile!

Thanks so much, guys.

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**EDIT 2: **Sequel is up! :D Thanks for voting guys. Please read the "important note" at the top of ch.1 of the sequel. (The sequel's called "Heart ain't a Brain" btw.)


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